The niece of former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was arrested at Louis Armstrong International Airport on Thanksgiving Day after kicking and biting Jefferson Parrish Sheriff’s Office Deputies in New Orleans.
According to authorities, Shannon Epstein, 25, boarded a Spirit Airlines flight back to New Jersey and asked a Latino family seated near her if they were smuggling cocaine.
A spokesperson for Spirit Airlines said crewmembers asked her to leave the plane after she started becoming irate as the plane left the gate, The pilot returned the plane to the gate and deputies attempted to escort the governor’s niece off the plane.
She began to get violent with the officers, kicking and biting them as they tried to detain her.
Six deputies were injured in the melee.
Police reported that Epstein threatened deputies, saying they were going to get fired because she “knew powerful people”, saying her uncle (former Governor Chris Christie) was friends with former President Donald J. Trump.
That claim has been widely disputed by many after Christie and Trump had a falling out. Christie, once a staunch ally of Trump has been criticizing the former president regularly in his role as a contributor for ABC News.
At one point, she told officers they would end up in jail for detaining her.
She was charged with six counts of assaulting a police officer and paid a $10,750 bail. The typically boisterous and opinionated former governor had no comment on this incident.