POLICE: ‘HOUSEWIFE’ SLIPPED CUFFS, TRIED TO FLEE
PALM BEACH — A star of the “Real Housewives of New York” reality TV show managed to slip out of her handcuffs and tried to flee from a patrol car following her arrest early Sunday, Palm Beach police said.
“I’m going to (expletive) kill you,” Luann de Lesseps told town officers as they tried to put her back in the car, according to the report.
The 52-year-old de Lesseps is facing five charges following the incident at The Colony hotel. She was released from the Palm Beach County Jail on Sunday and is due back in county court Jan. 25.
De Lesseps stayed in Room 327 at The Colony, an 89-room hotel a block from the beach, during her visit to Palm Beach. A security guard told police he found her and a man in a bed in Room 407, which the housekeeping staff was turning down for the night, according to an arrest report. After five minutes of trying to get de Lesseps and the man to leave, the guard called police at about 9:30 p.m.
But when officers arrived, they found de Lesseps and a female friend in Room 407, and both appeared to be intoxicated, police said. The women slurred their words and smelled of alcohol, according to the report.
When both were told to leave, the other woman did so but de Lesseps refused and locked herself in the bathroom, police said. The report does not
De Lesseps apologized for her behavior via her Twitter account a day after her arrest, and said it was her fifirst time in Palm Beach since her wedding with Tom D’Agostino Jr. at The Brazilian Court Hotel last New Year’s Eve.
specify either the time when the female friend came to the room or what happened to the man.
Officers tried to open the bathroom door, and de Lesseps shoved one of them in the chest, according to the report. She slammed
the door on another, hitting that offifficer in the face, police said.
After being handcuffed and placed in a patrol car, the reality star removed the cuffffffffffffs and tried to leave the car. As an offifficer tried to put her hand cuff ff ff ff ff ff sb a ck on, she threatened him. She also threatened to kill other offificers while in a holding cell at the Police Department, according to the report.
De Lesseps was arrested on felony charges of battery on an officer, resisting arrest with violence and two counts of crimes against a person, as well as a misdemeanor charge of disorderly intoxication.
Before the incident, de Lesseps posted an Instagram story, picking out dresses with the friend who police told to leave the hotel room. De Lesseps narrates in the video and said, “Getting ready for pre-Christmas Eve.”
The hotel’s general manager did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
During a hearing at the jail Sunday, Judge Ted Booras released de Lesseps, who has no prior offffffffffffenses, on her own recognizance but warned the television personality not to ignore her felony charges.
“I don’t think it would be that hard to find you,” he said.
The judge also said de Lesseps should stop drinking because she might have a problem with alcohol. When she started to answer him in court, he quieted her and told her not to incriminate herself.
“Don’t say anything,” he said.
De Lesseps apologized for her behavior via her Twitter account a day after her arrest and said it was her fifirst time in Palm Beach since her wedding with Tom D’Agostino Jr. at The Brazilian Court Hotel last New Year’s Eve.
“I am committed to a transformative and hopeful 2018,” de Lesseps wrote.
She announced her divorce with D’Agostino in a tweet Aug. 3. De Lesseps was previously married to Count Alexandre de Lesseps and retained the French noble title after their 2009 divorce. Sunday’s incident was not
the first time stars of the “Real Housewives” television programs have met with trouble in South Florida.
Reality star Tinsley Mercer Mortimer was arrested in April 2016 on a charge of trespassing by Palm Beach police after her ex-boyfriend told offificers she was outside his El Dorado Lane home screaming and crying, according to a Palm Beach Daily News article. The socialite’s charges were dismissed, and she became a member of the “Real Housewives of New York” cast a year after her arrest.
Two “Real Housewives of Miami” cast members have also been arrested in Florida. Ana Quincoces was arrested for driving with a suspended
license in March 2015, and Marysol Patton was arrested for driving under the inflflu
ence in January 2010. Quincoces was given 15 hours of community service, and Patton pleaded guilty to a lesser
charge — reckless driving — and paid a $1,581 fifine.