Stacy Engman (2016).
Photo: Courtesy of Stacy Engman via Instagram.
Stacy Engman, the New York-based curator and socialite who was accused in a court notice filed on Monday in the US District Court in Brooklyn of having bitten a passenger on a flight from Istanbul to New York, claims the story is a fabrication.
Last summer, officers from the Port Authority Police Department interviewed the passenger, who has been identified as Christina Tyler, when the aircraft landed in New York, along with a man who allegedly witnessed the incident and confirmed that Engman bit Tyler.
We reached out to Engman, who posted a picture of herself in a tiara to Instagram yesterday (pictured above) when news first surfaced about the incident, which reportedly happened this past July, to get her side of the story.
Engman, who calls the alleged incident “the most ridiculous story imaginable,” told artnet News that the claims against her by the passenger seated in her row, Christina Tyler, who she said she had never met before and has not seen since that flight, are “completely baseless.”
Engman, who is a former contemporary art curator for the National Arts Club, maintained that she had been returning from a photo shoot for W Magazine for the “O Couture” show, her art and fashion crossover series and had to leave early because she was very ill with food poisoning.
“Literally from the second I got on the flight,” said Engman, “I went directly to sleep, and I was under the care of the flight attendant because they were aware that I was sick. So I have no idea about where this is coming from, about any aggression, because I was deathly ill and sleeping….I just remember waking up and being whacked over the head by this girl who obviously took issue with me wearing a tiara. I had just come from a photo shoot.”
Engman added, “The only thing I’m guilty of is wearing my sunglasses tiara, which is my signature…and I think this girl had issue with it.”
As for the witness, a man allegedly seated nearby Engman and Tyler on the flight, who was quoted on the report taken down by special agent Karen M. Ferra at JFK, Engman denies that there were any such witnesses.
“No, there are no witnesses that saw any biting because it did not happen,” she said. “Period. She was traveling with people and I was traveling alone, and that’s the size of it. There are no witnesses that witnessed any biting because it did not happen. This is the biggest fabrication. No biting whatsoever.”