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.
Assuming there is no video from the holding area which is a very unlikely assumption. Sorry but I consider this SeeBS story a plant by the family. Further, it is "get it out there fast and raw with any old explanation" reporting. That is tabloid reporting, not journalism.
There used to be people called "editors" who would make corrections to the stories the reporters turned in. What ever happened to editors?
Agreed, but unfortunately it happens in dozens of jails across the nation all the time.
if she was drunk it was most likely because a bar at the airport sold her the alcohol.
Very few people get drunk for free these days. Almost no one gets drunk against their will. Is it your assertion that if a drunk kills themselves or someone else, the seller of the alcohol is liable?
Given what we now know of the women’s problems and reason for travel, why on Earth did her husband, or another family member accompany her? She was heading to Rehab and drinking at the bar right before her flight, so much so that she missed the flight? Now they want to blame the police? Typical libs, take no responsibility for anything, then sue when something bad happens that they could have prevented with a little foresight and responsibility. I guess that’s asking too much from the liberal elites...
Isn't this something that has been obvious for years? Clinton was never responsible "the buck never got here", nor is any other liberal.
There is an unconfirmed report that she had to re-enter through security and was so unstable that TSA gave her the extra pat-down treatment. This may indicate she left the airport to drink.
Regardless, she is solely responsible for what happened. Nobody else.
I'm presuming her NY family put her on the airplane and left only after seeing her board. But I have not read this anywhere
So NY family was depending on this "friend" to take her the rest of the way
My take is not to blame her family so much.
What is the point of your link to the original story about this?
This is additional news (the video) that deserves its own thread of discussion.
Exactly! It's almost a cliche around here (the Oklahoma City area): every time some gangbanger shoots or knifes someone, the mama appears on camera crying about what a "good boy" he really is. This week, it was a guy who actually opened fire on the police, and of course they shot back. But his family reviled the police and....you got it..."he was such a good kid!"
All the updated news is on the last page of the existing thread, including the video!
It is 2 hours, perhaps a bit more depending in where in Tucson you are going. Traffic on I-10 is pretty heavy these days - it hasn’t been widened in over 30 years, and Arizona has grown a bit during that time.
The hubbub is that this happened to a Gotbaum. Very well known and connected NYC Democrat family. Victor headed up a labor union (garbage men I believe) and jousted with Mayor Lindsay (Linseed on Batman TV show) back in the day - 1966 or so
And my other favorite — “he was starting to turn his life around.”
Been published her rehab was $42,000 per month. Not that her family paid full freight on this but for such expensive rehab maybe they should have done their part and taken her right to the door of the place
Despite almost everyone's belief to the contrary, residential alcohol rehab has not been proven more effective than any other type of program with strong emphasis on AA.
It's not uncommon for drunks/addicts to go on one last binge before entering rehab. She was probably nervous as hell about the program and alcoholics turn to alcohol when they are emotionally distraught about anything. Her history of depression just made the situation worse.
I totally believe the suicide angle is the most likely possibility. Here she is, about to enter rehab, and is arrested by airport cops because she got on a binge on the way there and assaulted other people. She was mortified (in the classic sense of the word) by what people would think and couldn't face it.
I work in Emergency Medicine, and about 80% of the people who show up in the ER to “get admitted for rehab” do it totally drunk or stoned. A significant number leave within 24 hours. You would not believe the millions upon millions of wasted healthcare dollars running these people through the mill over and over and over. I’ve seen people who have been “detoxed” in the hospital 3 or 4 time in a month.
Kaiser in California had the best answer. They only did outpatient rehab ( studies show NO long term diffence in outcomes, you don’t live in the hospital after all). If you showed up in the ER we took care of any medical issues, gave you a script for a couple of Librium to take the edge off, and gave them a referral to outpatient Rehab the next day, where they were told to show up SOBER and with a ride. If they were serious about getting straight they did, if they weren’t , too bad.
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