Flight Attendant Reveals Plan to Sue Schuller for $5 Million

Khaled Elabiad, the United Airlines flight attendant who said he was aggressively grabbed and shaken by the Rev. Robert H. Schuller on a transcontinental flight, plans to file a $5-million lawsuit against the TV minister, his attorney said Monday.

Elabiad, who lives in the New York area and has been silent until now, also plans a media blitz this week beginning with an appearance today on “Inside Edition” and on Wednesday with “Larry King Live,” said his attorney, Jack Grossman of Queens, N.Y.

Since the incident, his attorney said, Elabiad has suffered neck and back pain and has been too traumatized and depressed to return to work. He is being treated by a physician, a chiropractor and a psychiatrist, Grossman said.

“So far, his physical injuries . . . have been diagnosed as potentially permanent. His emotional distress has left him in a deep, as yet insolvable depression,” the attorney said.

The lawsuit is expected to be filed in federal court in New York on Friday, Grossman said.

Neither Schuller nor a spokesman for his church, the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, could be reached for comment Monday.

Grossman said his client will appear at a news conference on Wednesday and will be joined by another United Airlines attendant who had a problem with Schuller on the same flight and “will corroborate Elabiad’s story.”

“There’s a lot of details missing here,” Grossman said about the incident on the flight from Los Angeles to New York. It reportedly started when Schuller wanted to hang his ministerial robe and the flight attendant refused. It then escalated when Schuller asked for dessert without cheese and got cheese.

Grossman described Elabiad as a seasoned professional in his 30s, “a real passive guy,” who has worked for United for at least three years and was a flight attendant for TWA before that.

“He’s been waiting until after the criminal adjudication of [Schuller’s] case,” Grossman said. “In fact, the U.S. attorney’s office didn’t want him to do anything with the civil [case] until the criminal [case] was done.”

Schuller pleaded not guilty to one misdemeanor count of assault after a federal investigator concluded the minister had shaken the flight attendant by the shoulders “a number of times” and caused his head “to move up and down in a vigorous manner.”

The 70-year-old founder of Crystal Cathedral Ministries made a deal with federal prosecutors that enabled him to avoid a trial by apologizing in court and submitting to six months of supervision by a federal case officer. Prosecutors said they will drop the charge if Schuller keeps a clean record in that time.

Schuller also paid a $1,100 civil fine from his personal funds.

In a statement to the federal court, Schuller said he was saddened about any part “I may have had in creating the incident,” and added: “I am 70 years old, but I am not too old to learn or be taught new lessons.”

After Schuller apologized and paid the fine, Grossman said his client was happy.

“But it wasn’t about money,” Grossman said. “It was the fact that [Schuller] stated that he assaulted my client.”