Flight from hell: Mom accused of boozing, beating kids

From ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS:

Two little kids were screaming and crawling on the floor of Frontier Airlines Flight 108, but passengers said it was their mom who was out of control on the hellish trip to Denver.

Tamera Jo Freeman is accused of boozing, cursing and beating her children, ages 2 and 4, and hurling a drink at a flight attendant who tried to intervene on a flight from San Francisco to Denver.

The 38-year-old San Francisco woman was arrested Monday after the jetliner landed at Denver International Airport. She’s sitting in Jefferson County jail, charged with assaulting her children and interfering with a flight crew, according to federal court documents.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Boyd Boland ordered Freeman jailed until Friday, when she has a preliminary and detention hearing.

Passengers told the FBI that Freeman was drinking heavily before and during the flight and alternated between cursing and terrorizing or neglecting her 2-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter because they were interfering with her watching a movie.

"Freeman appeared intoxicated and violent toward her children before she boarded the flight in San Francisco," according to an FBI statement supporting the criminal complaint.

Passengers said the children spent the nearly two-hour ordeal trying to hide on the floor in the corner, scared and crying, according to an FBI complaint.

The mom "just started going ballistic" when the toddler clad in a T-shirt and diaper knocked over her drink, passenger Carrie Storin told CBS4 News.

The woman said "you shut up, you idiot. Get in the corner," Storin recounted. "I heard slapping noises. It was bad. I felt so sick, I wanted to cry," Storin told CBS 4 News.

"So, I can’t imagine what those kids felt like," said Storin, who was sitting across the aisle from the woman and her children.

The mother admitted to the FBI she "lost it" on the plane, saying "she had slapped her children during the flight because they were fighting over the window shade and had spilled Freeman’s drink," according to the FBI complaint. She also acknowledged drinking "several alcoholic beverages on the flight."

Before boarding the flight at San Francisco airport, Freeman dropped the 2-year-old on his back and head on the ground because he didn’t want to go to the bathroom with her, passenger Katie Shanahan told the FBI.

"Freeman left her son on the ground crying for several minutes," Shanahan recounted, according to court records.

On the flight, the mom drank and watched the movie, ignoring the toddler who climbed under the seat, "squeezing toothpaste out," Storin said. "It was a total mess. There was juice everywhere and napkins everywhere.

"The little girl ... was pressed up against the window, like just hugging her knees, screaming," Storin said.

Passenger Amy Grant "observed Freeman hitting her children repeatedly and yelling profanities at her children and the flight attendants," according to the complaint. "She observed Freeman swing with an opened hand down at the children and hear the children crying after being struck."

Several passengers complained to the flight crew about the mother’s repeated slapping and punching of the children during the flight, court records stated.

When flight attendant Amy Fleming tried to intervene, Freeman told her to "mind her own business" and demanded another round, court records stated.

When Fleming refused to serve Freeman, the mother cursed the flight attendant and allegedly threw a drink that landed at Fleming’s feet, witnesses told the FBI.

Freeman then followed Fleming into the common area of the plane, "yelling and pointing her finger."

Fleming felt so threatened she told the FBI she "moved into a defensive stance."

She then talked Freeman into returning to her seat.

The flight attendant asked a corrections officer who happened to be on the plane to sit near Freeman, the complaint stated. Then the attendant grabbed some duct tape and "had to physically stand near Freeman to prevent her from causing more problems on the flight or further assaulting her children," the FBI wrote.

After the flight attendant took action, the captain radioed ahead to have Denver police meet the plane.

"I think they did the best they could," Storin said. "I just wish they would have done something sooner, because it was pretty bad."

During a Wednesday hearing, Freeman requested a public defender and the judge agreed to appoint one.

Her children were placed in the custody of the Denver social services agency until a relative flies from San Francisco to take them home, according to CBS4 News.

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Make mine a double, ya fuckin' slut.