A video of Luann de Lesseps’ drunken arrest on Christmas Eve has surfaced, showing the Real Housewives of New York star violently threatening police officers.
The reality star was arrested in Palm Beach, Florida in December for disorderly intoxication. In the process, however, she racked up charges of battery on an officer, resisting arrest with violence and threatening a public servant. Now, the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office has released footage of the arrest from inside the police cruiser, giving a firsthand look at de Lesseps’ unruly behavior.
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“I’ve done nothing wrong,” she repeats over and over again. She unbuckles her seatbelt and a police officer helps her out of the car, but then the video cuts forward to show her getting shoved back into the seat, this time with her hands cuffed behind her back.
“Don’t touch me, I’m going to kill you,” she says to the officer with conviction. “I’ll kill you. I will kill you. For what? I did nothing wrong. Don’t touch me.”
Off screen, friends can be heard trying to encourage de Lesseps to comply with the officer, but she won’t listen. Once the officer successfuly buckles her back into the seat, she lunges forward, hanging her feat out of the door so it can’t be closed and straining against the seatbelt.
“Ma’am, listen to me. I’m gonna hog tie you if you don’t stop,” the frustrated officer finally says. “Leave your feet in the vehicle.”
The reality star was in Palm Beach for the holidays just a year after she had celebrated her wedding there with tom D’Agostino Jr. The two divorced only seven months later, and she has said that she believes the emotional weight of the location contributed to her drunken outburst.
Police were called after de Lesseps wandered into the wrong side ofthe Colony Hotel, where she was staying. The disoriented TV personality was taken into custody, but she quickly became combative.
In the months since then, de Lesseps has been through an alcohol treatment program and has decided to give up drinking indefinitely, though she says that she hopes she can find moderation again some day.
“Everybody around me says, ‘Luann, you’re not an alcoholic.’ I don’t know if I am or not,” she told PEOPLE. “All I know is that not drinking works for me right now. Will I drink again? I don’t know. I miss good red wine. Not to say that I’ll never have good red wine again.”
“Who knows where we’ll all be tomorrow,” she continued. “For today, that’s the choice that I’m making for myself.”
