Selma Blair apology: “So sorry” to those she frightened as two assault counts head to a January hearing

The Selma Blair apology arrived about three weeks after the October 11 flight that led to criminal charges. In an Instagram video, the actor said she was “so sorry” to anyone she hurt, frightened or alarmed. She has pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree assault, and her next court date is in January.

What the Selma Blair apology did and did not say

Blair, 54, kept the video tightly scoped. She acknowledged she had been quiet since the incident and said her fans deserved to hear from her directly. She also said her lawyers had asked her not to discuss that day, and that she was following their advice. She did not address the allegations, the medical explanation offered on her behalf, or the people named in the charging documents.

What she offered was a statement of character. “Not one day ever have I intended to hurt or frighten anyone,” she said, adding that she took the matter “very seriously.” She thanked people who had sent support and said her service dog, Scout, who travelled with her, was doing well. She has lived with multiple sclerosis since her 2018 diagnosis. She closed by saying she would now focus on her health and her son.

The allegations behind the case

According to charging documents, Blair was detained when the Delta flight from Los Angeles landed in New York and was taken to hospital for evaluation. A police officer accompanying her to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center alleged that, while being secured to a stretcher, Blair freed one leg from the straps and repeatedly kicked the officer in the face, neck and chest. The officer reported serious pain and substantial swelling. A nurse later said Blair kicked her in the chest while moving her.

Blair was arraigned in Queens on the two second-degree assault counts. A judge set bail at $20,000 cash or a $60,000 bond. These are allegations only, and Blair has entered a not guilty plea.

The defence: a medical emergency

The explanation from Blair’s side has stayed consistent. Her representatives said from the start that her alleged behaviour stemmed from a severe medical emergency. In court, her lawyer, Shawn Barnes, said her actions were not intentional. He told the judge she had missed several doses of a powerful medication that controls severe neurological symptoms, according to reports in the New York Daily News and New York Post. He added that she boarded the flight amid a heavy workload and hit her head in the air. Together with the effects of altitude, he said, this produced “a state of severe confusion and disorientation.”

A later statement from her representatives went further, criticising coverage as “built almost entirely on a police statement and a decade-old headline.” It said Blair still has bad days and lives with daily pain. It also said she has pseudobulbar affect, a neurological condition secondary to her MS, which the statement said bears on how a medical episode looks to people who do not know her.

What happens next

The Selma Blair apology does not change the legal picture. The charges stand, the medical defence has so far been presented only through her lawyer and representatives, and the court has yet to test any of it. The January hearing will be the next point at which the case moves forward. For now, the video reads as a personal gesture, an attempt to acknowledge those affected without saying anything that could complicate her defence.

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File photo: Selma Blair (6541171199).jpg by Gordon Correll, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.