Posted on 10/05/2007 4:11:07 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi
NEW YORK (CBS) ― CBS 2 HD has obtained surveillance video showing three different angles of last week's arrest of Carol Anne Gotbaum at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix.
The video shows the daughter-in-law of New York City Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum reacting after learning she had missed her flight. It also shows Phoenix police officers move in on her, take her to the ground and arrest her.
Different angles show officers taking Gotbaum to a holding cell, where she later died mysteriously.
On the morning of Sept. 29, Gotbaum left her Upper West Side home, brought her children to school and flew off to Arizona. Plagued by a history of drinking and depression, she headed for an alcohol rehabilitation program in Tucson.
She landed in Phoenix at approximately 1:15 p.m. Arizona time.
"I know when she landed in Phoenix, she was stone-cold sober," said Gotbaum family attorney Michael Manning. "She got off the plane, called her husband, confident, committed, excited."
With 90 minutes to go for her connecting flight, Gotbaum went to eat lunch at the airport.
"We don't know whether she was drinking at lunch. We're going to find that out," said Manning.
Then she arrived for her connecting flight to Tucson. But she was too late. According to one witness who preferred to be unnamed, she became hysterical.
"She got her cell phone, broke it on a couple of customers, hit hem, threw it on her," said the witness.
At 2:49 pm, Phoenix Police received got a radio call about a woman who was "loud and disturbing." Within minutes, officers were struggling to subdue her.
She was arrested at 2:53 p.m. One officer used a knee to her back.
"She was screaming 'You're hurting me!'" recalled another witness. "The handcuffs are too tight on me!'"
Some speculate that could have been Gotbaum's fatal moment.
"When a person is lying prone and someone is lying on the back of the person, the person can't breathe," said former NYPD Captain Edward Mamet.
That's known as compressional asphyxia. Her attorney says the police could have killed Gotbaum right then and there.
"The witnesses that saw her just before she went into the holding tank say she was completely listless and unconscious," said Manning.
But according to police: "No one got hurt. The officers picked Ms. Gotbaum up on her feet and two officers then began to escort her to a holding area."
Police say Gotbaum then refused to allow them to search her. They chained her, handcuffed, to a bench. And then they left her alone.
According to police: "Officers felt due to their experience and the actions that had taken place Ms. Gotbaum was not a threat to others or to herself."
But they were wrong. At 3:29 p.m., Gotbaum was discovered dead. Police say she strangled herself with her chain. Her lawyer isn't so sure.
"It's pretty clear that somehow, some way, somebody used that chain around her neck," said Manning.
Police say they didn't know anything about her history of drinking or mental illness, and that they handled the case by the book.
Ok Mr. Lawyer, who are you accusing of murder? If you're going to do it, none of this pussyfooting around, just name names.
Just a white woman with a Jewish-sounding name. Nothing to see here. Move on.
“”She was screaming ‘You’re hurting me!’” recalled another witness. “The handcuffs are too tight on me!’”
Some speculate that could have been Gotbaum’s fatal moment.
“When a person is lying prone and someone is lying on the back of the person, the person can’t breathe,” said former NYPD Captain Edward Mamet.
That’s known as compressional asphyxia. Her attorney says the police could have killed Gotbaum right then and there.
“The witnesses that saw her just before she went into the holding tank say she was completely listless and unconscious,” said Manning.
But according to police: “No one got hurt. The officers picked Ms. Gotbaum up on her feet and two officers then began to escort her to a holding area.” “
Well when the officer says to comply, you do it. Idiot.
The video at the cited website shows her walking away with the arresting officers - unhappily, but walking. This lawyer is full of it.
Lawyers spin. That’s what they do. The attorney has to keep options open in case there is a decision to proceed with a civil suit, or maybe influence any prosecutions if they are warranted. I know a little about attorneys — I’ve worked for them for 35 years.
That’s why you take these pronouncements with a grain of salt. And that goes for the prosecutors and opposing counsel too, when or if this matter becomes a criminal proceeding or a civil case.
At this point, we don’t know what really happened. We don’t know her physical condition at the time of death. She could have been drunk — we don’t know because there haven’t been any toxicology results. Until the investigations are completed and the reports are done, we should all refrain from getting our daily exercise jumping to conclusions. And I’m reminding myself to do that too.
Wow. That's a good attorney - he traveled back in time and got a blood sample from his deceased client the moment she got off the plane. You don't often see that kind of dedication.
However, the video clearly shows her walking with the police after they arrested her.
So the attorney knew that claim was completely bogus well before he even made it.
Well, she was supposed to meet someone in Phoenix who would accompany her to Tuscon. The person was a no-show, so she started drinking.
The family made a minimum effort. The right thing would have been to accompany her all the way. If they could afford a $42,000 per month treatment program in Tuscon, they could afford another $400 plane ticket.
LOL!!!
Spewed coffee on that one!
They are her last moments on TV, therefore they are the last moments that matter.
And double that if she votes for Hillary in NY in November as well...
It is the attorney (with backing from the family) that is making a big deal out of this with all sorts of accusations.
The fact is this woman was an alcoholic going for treatment ($42,000/month). She was put on a flight and was supposed to meet with a family friend in Phoenix for the final leg to Tuscon. The friend never showed, so she went to a bar and got loaded.
At some point she realized she was late for the flight and tried to make it, but was turned away by the gate agents. She threw a fit (one report of her throwing herself on the floor and having a tantrum). Gate agents called the police who took her into custody after she put up a fight.
I have yet to hear anything done incorrectly by anyone other than this alcoholic/depressed woman....except from the attorney who is grasping at straws.
Next, expect lots of reports about marks on her body (implied to be caused by police, but most likely from her struggling). Toxicology reports will be downplayed.
The World is too big. Nobody can keep track of it all. As omnipresent media has grown, this problem has gotten even worse.
The solution is to have maybe 200,000 People Who Matter (PWMs), and everybody else. The PWMs get on TV and the newspaper, they get elected to high office or become celebrities, they become common household names. Victor and Betsy Gotbaum are most definitely PWMs.
Everybody else just muddles along, loved only by their families. They merit no attention unless they are interfacing with a PWM at a particular point in time.
So when a PWM gets treated like a regular person, it is big news. When one dies in a drunk tank, it is really big news.
“Isn’t it less than an hour to drive from Phoenix to Tucson?”
But if your fare is for the complete trip and you pay nothing extra for the last leg, you’d take it too.
The whole thing is a liberal Manhattan nightmare.
First. Phoenix.
Second. flying commercial with people in synthetics.
Third. Being told, told, ordered by those people.
Forth. Being touched, let alone arrested by hicks.
“What’s the hubbub, Bub?”
I dunno. Maybe because there’s some slighly elevated chance one of us might end up in an airport holding cell if we balk at some of the indignities heaped upon us?
Maybe because if I’m sitting handcuffed next to an unruly handcuffed drunk I don’t want it to be unobserved so that if something bad happens to one of us I don’t end up assaulted, dead, or blamed.
She shouldn’t have been left alone in a situation where she was able to harm herself or others. This wasn’t some third-world backalley gin joint; this was a high-tech airport in the United States and if she was drunk it was most likely because a bar at the airport sold her the alcohol.
These events just reinforce that lawyers shouldn’t police lawyers (e.g. the bar association), as well as that judges have lost control of our legal system (because they aren’t sanctioning lawyers for spouting ridiculous lies).
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