A California woman of Iranian descent who was arrested in El Paso after Southwest Airlines accused her of assaulting a flight attendant and interfering with a Houston-to-Los Angeles flight has been awarded $27.5 million in damages for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution, the El Paso Times reported today on its Web site.

The El Paso jury issued its verdict late Friday, finding -- according to court documents cited by the Times -- that Samantha Carrington's conduct on board the flight on Oct. 7, 2003, did not contribute to her arrest and prosecution.

"In the evidence it came out that one of the flight attendants stated that Ms. Carrington reminded her of a terrorist, and in our views she was the victim of profiling stereotypes and discrimination," Carrington's attorney, Enrique Moreno of El Paso, told the Times.

Southwest spokeswoman Beth Harbin said from Dallas that the airline will appeal.

"We certainly don't agree with this particular verdict. The verdict was not based on all the available facts because those facts were not presented to the jury for their consideration. We will appeal," Harbin told the Times on Monday.

Moreno, however, told the paper the verdict sends a message about racial profiling.

"I think all of us are concerned about security, but I think the lesson -- and I think it's a national lesson -- is you can't have uncontrolled power that affects individual rights. ... (the jurors) were not going to let a company simply under the guise of security fly and trample on a person's rights," Moreno told the Times.

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