Seems to me that she was suffering from bipolar disorder or schizophrenia with accompanying paranoia. Hardly the sort of thing that should be dealt with by charging her with federal offenses.
Many of you are taking the mental illness path. Not necessarily. If this behaviour was out of character it could be something else. I remember a colleague who began to behave strangely and out of character. Turned out he had a brain tumour!
Another possibility that many of us have seen is a substance abuse issue. In recent years prescription medications have taken a toll on colleagues and acquaintances.
In the modern politically correct union workplace it can be a tough call to define unusual behavior. If you say someone is acting oddly you are being 'judgmental' and you may be scheduled for 'sensitivity training'. The captain is now the 'team facilitator' in addition to being the 'inflight security coordinator'.
In the very few cases I'm anecdotally aware of, the legal charges were used as leverage to persuade the individual to seek company provided professional help to deal with the underlying causes of the aberrant behavior.
Whatever the cause of the bizarre behavior, I feel we must err on the side of caution when a coworker becomes combative, delusional or paranoid on an aircraft.
Did the cabin crew or sky marshals ever tell the captain about the situation with the flight attendant? Or, perhaps with good intentions, did they keep the problem compartmentalized, hoping she would eventually calm down and go back to work?