Christina Elizabeth Szele, a woman who pleaded guilty to punching a flight attendant last year, returned to a federal courtroom in Denver this morning on charges she violated the terms of her probation by assaulting her sister-in-law in a drunken rage.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathleen Tafoya ruled Szele must be held without bond pending a formal hearing on the new charges.
Szele, who appeared in an orange jumpsuit, did not contest detention. She also waived a preliminary hearing.
Szele, 36, of Woodside, N.Y., was given a stern warning by U.S. District Judge John Kane to stay out of trouble after he sentenced her to five years of probation in February.
Kane told her to clean up her life and stay away from drugs and alcohol. He also banned her from flying for five years.
But Szele got permission to fly home to New York to take care of some legal matters in March; while there, she was arrested and accused of punching her sister-in-law, Maggie Marko, in the head and pulling her hair.
Marko told investigators that as soon as Szele got off the plane in New York, she immediately “went straight for shots at the bars.”
Kane could decide to send Szele to federal prison for up to 20 months.
Szele first found herself in trouble on June 17 when a flight attendant on a JetBlue flight going from New York to San Francisco asked Szele to stop smoking in her seat.
Szele then punched the African-American flight attendant and hurled racial slurs at him.
The plane was diverted to Denver International Airport because of the incident.
