HOUSTON -- A flight attendant testified that the wife of megachurch evangelist Joel Osteen attacked her without provocation.

Continental Airlines flight attendant Sharon Brown testified for hours on Tuesday that she was polite and courteous to Victoria Osteen before the start of a Dec. 19, 2005, flight from Houston to Vail, Colo.

---

Read Reporter's Blog: On The Beat With Mary Benton

Slideshow: Flight Attendant Sues Victoria Osteen

---

"I repeatedly asked what I can do to help," Brown testified. "She asked to speak to someone in charge, someone in authority. I realized she was looking at the cockpit, so I positioned myself to stop her."

In a re-enactment, Brown told the jury that out of nowhere the co-pastor of Houston's popular Lakewood Church threw her against a bathroom door and elbowed her in the left breast during an angry outburst over a spill on her first-class seat.

Brown said the incident caused her to suffer medical and psychological problems, and question her faith. She also has sought psychological help.

Brown testified that Osteen called her an angel and asked if she wanted an apology. Brown said Osteen told her that she would do that, but it would not be sincere. Brown later testified that she wanted Osteen to go in front of her congregation and tell them she had done something wrong. When she refused, Brown said that was one of the reasons she decided to sue.

Joel and Victoria Osteen have testified that no attack ever took place.

Under cross-examination by Victoria Osteen's attorney, Rusty Hardin, Brown had trouble remembering some details, which could work against her with the jury, according to KPRC Local 2's legal analyst.

"Ultimately the truth is in the details. And if this witness or any witness is mistaken or as Ms. Brown has repeatedly said, she can't be 100 percent sure of, then, this jury goes back to the jury room remembering that it's Ms. Brown's burden of proof, and thinks, 'We just don't know what happened,'" Brian Wice said.

Hardin brought up a statement Brown made in her deposition in which she called Lakewood a cult-based church, and described Victoria and Joel Osteen as the devil.

On the stand, Brown said she was on sinus medication, regretted the statement and did not feel that way.

Brown's attorney said he would rest his case after her testimony.

Osteen's attorney is expected to call several passengers who will reportedly testify that they never saw the attack that Brown described.

Friends said Brown has never been the same since the incident.

"You have to put yourself in the position of if you're on a plane and someone does something like that, you have people watching you all the time. You can't make things up," said Cindy Rhoden, a flight attendant.

Brown is suing Victoria Osteen for the alleged attacked, and wants an apology and punitive damages amounting to 10 percent of Osteen's net worth as part of her suit.