Posted on 11/09/2007 7:25:36 PM PST by RDTF
PHOENIX (CBS) ― Six weeks after a hysterical Carol Anne Gotbaum died in a holding cell at Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport, a medical examiner on Friday ruled she was intoxicated by alcohol and prescription pills and that she accidentally strangled herself.
The official cause: Asphyxia by hanging.
Carol Anne Gotbaum, the 45-year-old stepdaughter of NYC Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, was arrested for disorderly conduct after becoming irate when she missed a connecting flight that would have taken her to an alcohol treatment center. Surveillance video showed the mother of three struggling with police, who handcuffed and shackled the screaming woman to a holding cell bench and left her alone.
When they returned, they found her in a sleeping position, with the chains of the handcuffs around her neck.
In the autopsy report released Friday, the Maricopa County, Ariz., Medical Examiner noted bruises on the upper body and wrote that Gotbaum's neck had, "... no fewer than five patterned impressions on the skin..." and that there was an "indentation of the skin of the right neck in the area of the overlaying abrasions..."
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at wcbstv.com ...
She needed no enemies.
-—”If the airline or the police authority had treated Carol with any modicum of sensitivity and grace, or one single person had put an arm around her shoulder, sat her down and given her some protection, she might still be with us today,” he said. -—
That person was you, moron.
People who are emotionally unstable caused by drugs, booze or mental illness can go into a flying rage. In those short minutes of rage, everything in the world goes blank on them. Thus if she goes nuts in the holding pen she will lash out in all directions to protest the confinement. If the chain wraps around her neck, a normal person would stop and unravel it, a person in rage will do the opposite and yank against it thus strangling themself to death. If the officer did not shackle her, she probably would have beat or kick the walls or door until she broke her hand or foot.
To believe the airline bears no respooonsiblity what so ever is to ignore the fact the the worried husband had called several times to warn them of her eratic and disturbed behaviour....the last time a full hour after she was dead....no one said a word to him about it...
Locking her up is one thing...leaving her un monitored is unacceptible...
“To believe the airline bears no respooonsiblity what so ever is to ignore the fact the the worried husband had called several times to warn them of her eratic and disturbed behaviour....the last time a full hour after she was dead....no one said a word to him about it...
Locking her up is one thing...leaving her un monitored is unacceptible...”
I heard otherwise. The recording I heard was him calling well after she had died. The dispatcher put him through to a detective to break the news to him.
She should have been escorted to the door of the treatment center.
The husband knows that, and now he's blaming everybody else for his negligence.
“To believe the airline bears no respooonsiblity what so ever is to ignore the fact the the worried husband had called several times to warn them of her eratic and disturbed behaviour...”
—
You, presumably, are a lawyer or a Leftist. Sorry to repeat myself.
— You, presumably, are a lawyer or a Leftist. Sorry to repeat myself.
You are sorry.
If a person's life could have been saved, we should be all for it.
“That person was you, moron.”
exactly!....I’ve been clean and sober for 28 years and have taken people to both treatment and detox....you ALWAYS take them....you NEVER let them go alone....if necessary you even sit with them during the intake interview...the family never should have let her go without escort.
now here’s what I think really was behind it....like most alcoholics/addicts this woman simply wore out the patience of her family....for countless times they had cleaned up her messes, bailed her out of scrapes and listened to her apologies....they’d had enough....so they put her on a plane and hoped she would be successful with yet another attempt at treatment...and she did the natural thing that alcoholics do: she drank...
the bottom line for the practicing alcoholic is insanity, incarceration or death....this poor woman managed all three in the space of an hour....very sad.
I’m sorry...but this is the airport’s liability, how??? Since when is an airport supposed to take into consideration the mental state of all its passengers. If she was that unstable she should NEVER have been flying alone. That’s what the husband will have the bear the rest of his life. HE’S THE ONE TO BLAME...not the stranger at the airport.
Actualy I’m an electrician...
While they followed their duty to protect others from her....they neglected their duty of keeping her from harming herself...
It’s not as though the husband didnt call and give them several heads up on her conditon and mental state...
And I’m pretty sure the flying muzzies will have a better day in court than he will...
Spare me the “your a liberal” kneejerk crap alright?
Thanks.
The call you heard was the last call...made after she was dead...
His first call was an hour before she arrived...
I truly am curious why you think the airport had a legal and moral responsibility for her once she got there? Even if he called...why do they become legally responsible for her? This is a very bad can of worms here.
Correction...I misread part of the article...
She was dead an hour before he called the first time...and they didnt tell him until the third call...
When you lawfully imprison someone...you accept certain liabilties for their safety at a minmum,...look it up..
Such as a suicide watch...or removing a prisoner from the general population etc...
And from the looks of things...it was the pheonix PD who had her..not the airport police...
Now clearly...many disagree with me...but hey...I walk lockstep with no man...
There is an amount of negligence here...and I’m sure they will sue...
But that is their right last time I checked...isnt it?
Doesnt mean they will win...but they have the right to seek redress...
-—now here’s what I think really was behind it....like most alcoholics/addicts this woman simply wore out the patience of her family-—
I think you’re right. In addition most of the time the alcoholic isn’t the only one in denial. The husband is accusing total strangers of what he himself is clearly guilty — typical alcoholic behavior.
21 years clean and sober.
Frankly, it looks like the husband is trying to pass his guilt off as blame on the police/airport .. anyone but himself. The person with his arm around her shoulder showing sensitivity should have been him ... from their home to the detox center. Where the hell was HE and why wasn’t he with her? Calling an airline and saying ‘my severely mentally impaired wife will be arriving in an hour, take care of her,’ is not responsible.
I don’t see how leaving her alone was negligence, either. Does lockup require security to stay with her? At some point people do have to take responsibility for their own actions or for the actions of their spouses who are incmpetent. He can sue, but I would hope the suit would be dismissed.
A “highly suicidal” (according to her SOB husband), pill-addled hysterical narcissistic drunk is sent by her stone-cold hearted wealthy ultra-liberal family all alone across the USA to a dry out center. She kills herself in detention at an airport.
Her evil family executed her by their horrific neglect. Now they want to get paid for what is essentially their murderous behavior.
Wow...I’m not in some parallel democratic underground site am I?
This is the type of crap they say about conservatives...
Without having more information as to why she was by herself...you are only assuming...
Irregardless...families often send small children unacompanied on flights...are they heartless and incompitent as well?
Or do they expect their kid to make it to the other end alive?
Like it or not...the police accepted responsiblity when they placed her in restraints and detained her against her will...
The death is clearly accidental...and it clearly wouldnt have happened if they had handled it differently...
People are charged with the accidental causing of death all the time....only the cops call it negligent homicide...
If you or I locked up a person in a room...for any reason...and returned ten minutes later to find them dead.....you can bet your ass we’d be facing some jail time...
How about we hold fire until some discovery happens and more facts come out eh?
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