A representative for Selma Blair came to her defense on Friday, just days after the actress pleaded not guilty after being arrested on two counts of second-degree assault in connection to a physical incident on a plane.
The “Cruel Intentions” actor is accused of kicking a Port Authority police officer, and later a nurse at a hospital, after she was removed from the Delta Air Lines flight for being physically abusive around 11:50 p.m. Sunday, according to a court documents.
“Since Sunday night, the public account of what happened to Selma aboard a flight to New York has been built almost entirely on a police statement and a decade-old headline,” the representative said in a statement to NBC News. “We can, however, correct the record on a few points already in public circulation.”
The representative doubled down previous statements from Blair’s team that she “experienced a medical emergency on the flight” and that she “did not intend to harm anyone.”
Blair revealed in 2018 that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disorder that attacks healthy cells in the central nervous system, according to the National Institutes of Health.
“What Selma has been able to do physically in the years since is nothing short of a miracle. She still has bad days, and she lives with pain daily,” her representative said, adding that the actress also has “pseudobulbar affect, a neurological condition secondary to her MS, which bears directly on how a medical episode presents to people who do not know her.”
According to the National Institutes of Health, pseudobulbar affect “may occur in association with a variety of neurological diseases,” including multiple sclerosis.
“For the same reason, she travels with a service dog who doesn’t leave her side, and the authorities took her dog from her,” Blair’s representative stated.
The representative added that there was “no attempt to open the door of the aircraft” during the incident.
Authorities in New York accused Blair of kicking an officer in the face, neck and chest when he was securing the actress on a stretcher to be transported to the hospital, according to a criminal affidavit in the case.
At the hospital, a nurse said Blair kicked her in the chest, according to the document.
In court, Blair’s lawyers said she had missed several doses of medication controlling severe neurological symptoms.
“There was an incident in which Ms. Blair actually fell and hit her head. These factors, your Honor, coupled with the altitude, resulting in a state of severe confusion and disorientation,” Shawn Barnes, Blair’s attorney said in court this week.
“There is much more to this story than has been reported, and we ask to consider the entirety of the facts before rushing to judgment, whether in the courtroom or in the court of public opinion,” the representative said.