Flight Attendant Says Studio City Man Cursed Her, Twisted Her Arm

A TWA flight attendant testified Tuesday a Studio City man cursed her and twisted her arm after she ordered him to put out his cigarette on a non-smoking flight, leaving her so “frightened and immobilized” she could not do her job.

“All of me was not there,” Pam Martinez testified in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, describing how she felt after the assault she said occurred in December, 1987.

James Tabacca, 36, who prosecutors allege became enraged after smoking was unexpectedly banned on his cross-country flight, is charged with one count of interfering with the duties of a flight crew.

Tabacca’s attorney, Deputy Federal Public Defender Gerald Salseda, admitted Tabacca was “loud and obnoxious,” but maintains Tabacca never touched or cursed Martinez. Salseda argued that Martinez concocted the assault story to cover up her inability to control the flight, which had erupted into “chaos” as a result of the smoking prohibition.

Tabacca was convicted in September, 1989, and sentenced to 15 days in jail, but a federal appeals court reversed the decision, saying the judge improperly allowed a verdict to be reached by 11 jurors after one was unable to return to court.

In opening arguments in the retrial, Assistant U.S. Atty. Mike Davis said Tabacca, a hairdresser for a mortician, was “angry and frustrated and let everyone around him know about it” when, as federal regulations require, smoking was banned on the plane because so many passengers had demanded non-smoking seats.

Martinez testified that Tabacca would not put out his cigarette and was “hysterical.”