A 67-year-old Arizona realtor who was restrained with duct tape and zip-ties by fellow passengers on an American Airlines flight now says he has no memory of the racist, homophobic outburst that got him arrested, or how he ended up in Maryland.
Layne Lundeen appeared in court in Annapolis, Maryland, the day after police hauled him off a diverted flight in Baltimore, facing two counts of second-degree assault and a disorderly conduct charge. When District Court Commissioner George Haag read the accusations aloud, Lundeen seemed baffled by his own conduct.
"I assaulted a police officer? Is that what it says?" Lundeen asked during the proceeding, the New York Post reported, citing audio obtained by The Banner. "Oh my God. What a mess. I don't remember any of it."
Lundeen had boarded an American Airlines flight bound for Newark. He told the court he was traveling to help his daughter. His seatmate turned out to be Jonathan Cahn, a Messianic rabbi and author, and the two struck up a conversation.
Cahn said the exchange was pleasant, until it turned to spirituality. He told reporters he had mentioned "the reality of the real power of god on Earth and in our lives," and Lundeen snapped. Cahn described the transformation in stark terms:
"I have never seen someone change in a split second from light to dark as I saw then, as if something had taken him over. He went from the friendliest guy in the world to this dark person."
Cahn said Lundeen began "cursing Jesus" and "blaspheming Jesus and God." One remark Cahn attributed to Lundeen: "It's all bulls***. Jesus is bulls***." From there, police said, Lundeen grew "increasingly unruly", allegedly launching into a tirade that included racist and homophobic slurs directed at other passengers.
Fellow travelers decided they had seen enough. Multiple passengers physically restrained Lundeen, binding him to his seat with duct tape and zip-ties. The flight diverted to Baltimore for an emergency landing.
When officers boarded to escort Lundeen off the aircraft, the situation did not calm down. He allegedly struck a police officer in the chest, earning one of his two assault charges. Police arrested him on the spot.
By the next morning, Lundeen stood before Commissioner Haag in Annapolis, disoriented, without his glasses, and apparently confused about basic geography. He told the court he had come to New York City and had no idea how he wound up in Maryland. His flight, of course, had never reached its intended destination of Newark.
When Lundeen asked how far Annapolis was from New York City, Haag offered a dry reply: "That depends on mode of transportation and traffic, but at least a few hours."
Lundeen summed up his predicament with a line that captured none of the gravity of the charges against him: "I got a double whammy for my trip. Well, now it's a triple whammy."
The fallout was swift. Long Realty Company, the Tucson-based firm where Lundeen had worked as a realtor, let him go after footage of the incident spread online. In a matter of hours, Lundeen went from employed professional to unemployed defendant facing criminal charges in a state he claims he never intended to visit.
The court released Lundeen on his own recognizance but ordered him to abstain from drugs and alcohol, with an exception for prescription medications. His next court appearance is scheduled for October 19 at the District Court of Maryland for Anne Arundel County in Glen Burnie, a suburb south of Baltimore.
Lundeen told the court all he remembered was talking to the man next to him. Everything after that, the slurs, the physical struggle, the duct tape, the emergency landing, the alleged assault on a police officer, was, by his account, a total blank.
The "I don't remember" defense is not new in courtrooms, and it rarely satisfies anyone, judges, prosecutors, or the public. It is worth noting that the court's order to stay away from drugs and alcohol suggests the possibility of substance involvement, though no official statement in the proceedings confirmed a specific cause for Lundeen's behavior.
What is clear from the record is the sequence: a grown man allegedly terrorized a planeload of passengers with racist and homophobic abuse, had to be physically subdued by civilians doing the job that should never have fallen to them, forced an entire flight to divert, and then allegedly assaulted a law enforcement officer. Fellow passengers, people who paid for a routine trip to Newark, became first responders because one man could not control himself at 30,000 feet.
Lundeen faces real charges and a real court date. Whether he remembers the flight or not, the passengers who duct-taped him to his seat certainly do.
