Would-be traveler grounded for biting at airport

Article by: PAUL WALSH , Star Tribune
Updated: May 13, 2011 - 8:28 PM

A woman denied access to her flight for allegedly being drunk bit a police officer while being restrained.

Megan L. Biersach

Photo: Hennepin County Jail , Hennepin County Jail

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A drunken woman thwarted from boarding a flight bit a Twin Cities airport police officer after she was arrested for causing a foul-mouthed ruckus at a Lindbergh Terminal gate, according to charges.

Megan L. Biersach, 23, of Minnetonka, was jailed Tuesday and made bail ahead of a Friday afternoon court appearance.

The officer for the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport went to the hospital with a bite wound that broke the skin on his arm, the criminal complaint noted. He returned to work that day, said airport spokesman Patrick Hogan.

Biersach said her destination was Salt Lake City, but she became angered when US Airways "denied her boarding due to an inebriated state," Hogan said.

According to the charges:

Officers were called to a disturbance Tuesday afternoon at Gate E2. They met up with Biersach and immediately smelled alcohol on her breath. She was crying and swearing.

Police put her in a truck for a trip to detox, prompting her to swear at the officers and kick at one. As the officers tried to restrain her, she spit in the face of a police sergeant.

Biersach bit one of the officers on the arm as they attempted to put a "spit hood" over her head and restraints on her legs.

The officer's wound required that he be given baseline tests for hepatitis, AIDS and rabies, diseases that "could be transmitted ... from a human bite," said Hogan.

Biersach also is required to be tested for the same diseases.

If the woman had a transmittable disease, "there could be additional charges based on those findings," Hogan said.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482