Sharon Brown

Sharon Brown is a flight attendant for Continental Airlines. In December 2005, she was involved in an altercation with Victoria Osteen which resulted in the Osteen family being asked to leave the plane. Subsequently, Brown filed a $500,000 lawsuit against Victoria Osteen, claiming she was assaulted during the incident. A jury cleared Osteen of any wrongdoing in August of 2008.¹

The Lawsuit

Osteen's lawyer Rusty Hardin stated the lawsuit was "nothing more than attempted extortion" during opening statements on August 7, 2008. According to the Associated Press, Brown claimed Osteen assaulted her and "tried to get into the cockpit" before being restrained. Reginald McKamie, Brown's attorney, said his client was "simply doing her job."³

In her testimony, Brown's co-worker Maria Johnson supported Brown's claims, but was accused of playing the "race card" by Hardin after implying Osteen "acted racist" during the altercation.²

In the final days of the trial, three separate first-class passengers and the plane's pilot testified that they did not see Osteen assault Brown. Additionally, a former Continental flight attendant, Claudia Hall, testified that she had been falsely accused of assault by Brown in 1995.⁴