Feds Bag Hermes

OCTOBER 16--A polo-playing socialite who is an heir to the Hermès fashion empire was charged yesterday with drunkenly disrupting a transatlantic flight.

Mathias Guerrand-Hermès, 36, allegedly assaulted the pilot of an Air France flight en route Tuesday from Paris to New York, according a felony complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.

Guerrand-Hermès was so unruly that the flight crew handcuffed and shackled him to a first-class seat, reported FBI Agent Thomas O'Grady, who noted that, at one point, Guerrand-Hermès grabbed the pilot's 'genital area' and then tried to punch him. The pilot had sought to intercede in a dispute between Guerrand-Hermès and a fellow first-class passenger, but was told by Guerrand-Hermès, 'I am not going to behave myself,' according to the complaint, a copy of which you'll find here.

Charged with interfering with a flight crew, Guerrand-Hermès was released from federal custody yesterday afternoon after posting $50,000 bail. Though the felony rap carries a maximum of 20 years in prison, federal sentencing guidelines would only expose Guerrand-Hermès to a fraction of that time. (4 pages)