The women who got arrested on a Delta flight on XMAS Eve after spitting on a passenger and striking him on the head, after grousing to a flight attendant that she was no Rosa Parks ... well, it's not her first run in with authorities, because we've learned she tried picking a fight with cops just a month earlier as she was arrested for DUI.
Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... on November 10th, Patricia Cornwall crashed into a tree in Santa Rosa Beach. Sheriffs deputies arrived on scene and asked her if she needed medical help.