Attendant Plans 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, 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.

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.

The incident with Schuller reportedly started when Schuller wanted to hang his ministerial robe and the flight attendant refused. It escalated when Schuller asked for desert without cheese and got cheese.

Schuller pleaded not guilty to one misdemeanor count of assault after a federal investigator concluded he 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 minister 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.