Sandra Denton of Salt-N-Pepa says Southwest Airlines treated her like a criminal

Sandra “Pepa” Denton, 1/2 of Salt-N-Pepa is still shocked and confused by her encounter with Southwest Airlines this week when she says she was treated like a criminal without exhibiting any criminal behavior!!!

It’s certainly a mind-boggling story, but the “Push It” rapper came to “TMZ Live” on Wednesday to give us her extensive account of SW pushes her off a flight Monday left for Nashville from Las Vegas.

Pepa says she bought two seats to give herself extra room for an injured knee, but she wasn’t wearing her protective brace when a flight attendant stopped her for the extra seat.

Before she knew it, a man came by and asked Pepa for her extra seat, claiming he was on his way to a funeral – but she said when she asked him face to face to confirm the funeral story was true… lip quivered and he refused to do so. She assumed this meant he was lying.

Pepa tells us that before she could process that fiasco, a flight attendant ordered her off the flight – at which point she started recording on her phone – and she says the police met her in the terminal to escort her out.

As for why she got booted… Pepa is confused and tells us she didn’t yell at anyone. Independently we spoke to another passenger — Shannon McCormack sat in the same row and confirmed that she never saw Pepa argue at all until she got the boot.

Shannon says a flight attendant became angry when Pepa said she was going to record, telling her she didn’t have “permission” to film. Moments later, she says another servant came on board and said, “You, Denton, away!”

Now Southwest has refunded Pepa the $2,500 she paid for her two seats. The airline tells us that the police only intervened because, after receiving a refund, she no longer had a valid ticket, and it is standard practice for police to escort people without tickets out of the terminal.

Furthermore, the airline claims that she was removed from the flight because she did not listen to the instructions of a crew member. We insisted, but SW wouldn’t say what instruction she didn’t follow. Pepa and Shannon don’t know either, and both point out that she left the plane quietly.