Law Humor

Mathias Guerrand-Hermès, described as the "heir to French fashion house Hermès" and a "transatlantic polo organizer and financier," whatever that means, was arrested for air rage on October 16 after a drunken mid-air brawl.  The fight ended with Guerrand-Hermès cuffed to a seat (in first-class, of course), and he was arrested by FBI agents when the Air France flight arrived in New York.

According to witnesses, Guerrand-Hermès drank "quite a bit" of alcohol during the flight, which was carrying him to New York for his 37th birthday.  Eventually, he parked his drunk polo-organizing ass on another passenger's armrest and began harassing her.  Guerrand-Hermès then confronted the woman's husband, but the real Battle of the Atlantic began when members of the flight crew tried to intervene.  Please behave yourself, said the pilot, who for some reason was intervening in fights rather than piloting the plane, but Guerrand-Hermès instead grabbed the pilot's crotch, shouted "I am not going to behave myself!" and tried to throw a punch.  After a struggle during which one witness said the fashion heir "fought like a man possessed," Guerrand-Hermès ended up in handcuffs.

Passengers said they frowned upon others attacking the pilot while in flight.  "Attacking someone indiscriminately" -- can you attack someone discriminately? -- "isn't a good idea at the best of times," said one, "but especially not the man who's trying to fly your plane."

Guerrand-Hermès was charged in Brooklyn District Court with "interfering with a flight crew," and it does seem that grabbing the pilot's crotch would fit that description.  He was released after posting about $50,000 in bail, which he presumably scrounged up at Guido's Bail Bonds across the street.

Friends described Guerrand-Hermès as a "real live-wire who likes a laugh."

Link: Daily Telegraph