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Campbell Pleads Guilty
Naomi Campbell was sentenced to 200 hours of community service after pleading guilty to assaulting two police officers after an "air rage" incident at Heathrow Airport. She was also ordered to pay $400 to each of the police officers she attacked and $3
00 to Miles Sutherland, the captain of the British Airways plane she disrupted, in addition to a $4,600 fine. She could have received six months jail time and a heavy fine for the six offenses stemming from a violent altercation in April with British Airways cabin crew and police who removed her from a flight in handcuffs while waiting on the tarmac at Heathrow. Prosecutors said Campbell used foul language, kicked and spat at police, accused airline personnel of racism and threatened to sue them after she was told that one of her bags had not been placed on the flight to Los Angeles in April. Campbell was traveling in first class and became abusive to the captain after he left the cockpit to personally explain to her why her bag, and those of many other travelers, had not been placed on the flight. Prosecutors said she shouted a number of obscenities and tried to kick the police who were summoned to remove her after she "ordered" Sutherland to delay takeoff and look for her missing piece of luggage. At one point, she accused the airline staff of being racist and said they would not have removed her from the flight if she was white. She told a white policewoman that the only reason she was being arrested was because she was "black and famous" and threatened to sue. Magistrate Peter Yiacoumi told Campbell that she was getting credit for past good behavior and for pleading guilty at the first hearing, but said the crimes could not go unpunished. Prosecutors said she kicked and spat at police officers, used foul language repeatedly, and had to be removed from the plane."These offenses are aggravated because they were committed within a lengthy incident in a confined space on an aircraft," he said. "Whilst we accept that the loss of your suitcase would have been stressful, your subsequent behavior cannot be justified." After the sentencing, Campbell's spokesman, Alan Edwards, said she was "very, very relieved the incident was over." He said she felt she had been treated fairly and predicted she would work hard during her community service.
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