Alaska Airline Mt. Hood

An Alaska Airlines plane flies over Mount Hood.

(File photo)

A couple headed back to Portland from Las Vegas are suing Alaska Airlines for $11,498, claiming a flight attendant had them taken into airport police custody over a squabble about restroom use.

In a lawsuit filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court last week, Jessica DeWitt and Michael Dobbs claim the flight attendant was acting purely out of spite. An airline spokeswoman declined comment.

The girlfriend-boyfriend couple claim their troubles began on Feb. 16 during a flight home from celebrating DeWitt’s 25th birthday.

According to the couple's Lake Oswego attorney, Thomas Patton: The pair were seated in the first-class cabin, and DeWitt needed to use the restroom. Yet passengers from coach kept walking up to use the first-class restroom -- and DeWitt grew more uncomfortable by the minute as she waited for an opportunity to use the toilet.

Patton said when DeWitt asked a flight attendant if she would make an announcement stating that passengers were only to use the restrooms in their assigned cabins, the flight attendant said she would not.

“The flight attendant got real snippy,” Patton said. When DeWitt eventually made it into the restroom, the flight attendant slammed the door shut, the suit states. DeWitt said her shoulder was hurt, and she asked for the flight attendant’s name, Patton said.

A short while later, the flight attendant handed DeWitt and Dobbs a form she’d filled out, stating the couple had created an in-flight disturbance by verbally assaulting her, Patton said.

DeWitt and Dobbs say they did no such thing.

Patton said as the plane pulled up to the gate in Portland, passengers were told to remain seated while Port of Portland police boarded and escorted DeWitt and Dobbs off.

“It was embarrassing for them,” Patton said. They were questioned, then let go after about 30 minutes because police found no criminal wrongdoing, Patton said.

DeWitt suffered a rotator cuff injury and impingement syndrome -- requiring about two months of physical therapy, Patton said. She is seeking $1,498 for her medical expenses and $7,000 in non-economic damages for pain, suffering and inconvenience.

DeWitt and Dobbs also are seeking $1,500 each for humiliation from being taken into custody, Patton said.

Patton said the airline offered to settle the case by paying DeWitt's medical expenses -- plus a few hundred dollars more, but the couple turned the offer down.