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.
I'm not going to excuse her for drinking, I am going to do my best to explain it's not an uncommon occurrence for an alkie going into treatment to have one last "hurrah" and still be committed to sobriety.
Alcoholics drink, it's what makes them alcoholics. The commitment to go into a treatment center can be a difficult and hard decision for an alkie to make because they have to acknowledge there might just be a wee bit of a problem with alcohol. As the saying goes "Denial ain't just a river in Egypt." So, the alcoholic agrees there's a problem, is willing to do something about it and heads off to either A.A., treatment or other option. Having made the decision to do something about their problem leaves them "free" to take that last drink. Doesn't mean its right, it just is.
My only claim to any knowledge of any of this is I've lived it. My now ex-husband arrived at a treatment center with his scotch on the rocks in hand after a night of drinking. Thanks to the Dallas Council on Alcoholism we had already seen a counselor and he'd already made the commitment that if he drank again he'd go into treatment. He now has 20+ years of hard earned sobriety one day at a time. He went to a treatment center long before they became the "cool" place to escape to.
Sorry, but I wouldn't send one of my family across town let alone across the country in this situation without KNOWING one of us was with them.
Stongly AGREE! I'll be forever grateful to the family friend who drove the ex to the treatment center that night as he knew the small town south of Dallas where the center was.
From the post: She landed in Phoenix at approximately 1:15 p.m. Arizona time.... With 90 minutes to go for her connecting flight, Gotbaum went to eat lunch at the airport.
That struck me as odd, that a person can miss a connection with 90 minutes between flights.
Even at O'Hare, landing at terminal 3 you can get the F gates in less time then that.
I wonder how longe before some people step up and testify that she was drinking in one of the bars at Sky Harbor. I log about 75-90K miles a year and have never missed a connection when given that kind of time.
I’m a bit baffled at why this is such a major news story.
To keep up from paying attention to real news.
For their own protection most drunk tanks have video surveillance.
Why not in this case?
Best regards,
Violating the CURFEW LAW?
Another Nanny State violation of the Constitution-GUILTY until proven innocent and peppersprayed in the process.
Good work Officer.
Best regards,
And just how were they supposed to know she was an alcoholic and depressed as she is throwing a fit in the middle of an airport terminal?
You Monday-morning quarterbacks are hilarious!
That's the first I heard of the timeline. My point was that the media, initially, made this seem like some lady who missed a connection (like so many) and then was refused at the gate.
Our media has condemned our airlines without regard for facts. I travel nearly every week by air and airline customer service stinks.
Unfortunately, passengers stink even more.
Don't be a sucker for the media.
The initial report was for two people, they only got her. She may have been hooking.
You know better than to just trust an initial report without facts.
Sometimes people seek care far away to get the best available care, other times it is to get the embarassment out of sight of the locals...
Don't be a sucker for the "blue wall of silence" (the LEO version of "no snitching"!!)
The way the girl was dressed has hooker written all over it.
If Police continue to let themselves be used as pawns for every Bolshevik scheme Politicians can conceive, they should not be surprised to be on the receiving end of a boatload of citizen resentment, young or old.
They are contract employees of a municipality and have no more Constitutional standing than the unarmed mall ninjas at the local shopping center or the old time Pinkerton Railroad Detectives.
In this particular case the Officer did seem to exercise remarkable restraint and professionalism especially when you consider he initiated an UnConstitutional Search and Seizure.
Best regards,
Weight is given to the second part of my statement by their failure to have someone accompany this person to the facility, even if a friend was supposed to meet her at the airport.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.