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> [quote]Still, she was denied her reserved seat on the 1:30 flight. Nor did they allow her to board the next flight at 2:58 — which, of course, was also overbooked. Finally, Mesa’s counter personnel refused to let willing passengers switch with the clearly distraught Gotbaum. When she began to weep and protest, they called the police, who handcuffed her arms behind her back and dragged her away to a holding cell. They left her chained alone to a bench, crying inconsolably. Not long after, she was found dead, the chain shackling her to the bench stretched across her throat[/quote]

This is the part I don’t understand. If she was in a secure and confined holding area, why was she still handcuffed? Why was she handcuffed in the first place? Was she being violent? Did she spazz out, or do something that could not have otherwise been resolved by a burly security guard showing her the exit door?

Handcuffs are not designed to be worn for extended periods of time: only as long as it takes to get the prisoner to proper confined quarters. Fifteen minutes is more than enough time for most folk. An hour is considered a very long time, and two hours would be excessive.

Cuffing someone to a bench unsupervised would surely be against policy, if not against the law. Prisoners are generally not supposed to be left handcuffed and unsupervised.

I also don’t quite understand how she managed to choke herself with her chains. I’d need to see a diagram.

There is alot with this story that requires diligent enquiry. Something doesn’t smell right. The whole setup seems mickey-mouse (handcuffing someone to a bench using chains? That sounds Eighteenth-Century at best!)

There is more to this story than meets the eye.

I also don’t quite understand how she managed to choke herself with her chains. I’d need to see a diagram.

Me either! I cannot, for the life of me, figure it out nor have I read any accounting of exactly how it happened.

Was she drunk or acting psychotic or just very angry and agitated that she was going to miss her flight? The fact that other passengers offered their seats to her, indicates, although does not necessarily prove, that she was not posing a real psychical threat to herself or anyone else.

What I’ve read indicates that she was on time but denied a seat because the flight was overbooked. That’s enough to make anyone agitated but in today’s environment any sign of agitation could be grounds for arrest for any of us, especially in an airport. All you have to do now days is raise your voice, even a little or make a scene to get arrested and detained. The again there is now the husband’s account that suggests she might have been drinking.

If she was boarding a plane alone on route to a treatment center for alcohol addiction, I presume she was going on her own volition, but even still, I think she should have been accompanied by someone. She should not have been left alone. Someone from her family should have been with her from curb to door. Someone going through withdrawal and detoxing needs to be monitored as they can become more easily agitated than normal and that was the family’s responsibility, not the airlines. The again you unless you have a ticket, you can’t accompany someone past the security gate anymore.

From what I understand, once someone agrees to go into treatment, they make a promise and a commitment to show up and show up on time or else they can loose their admission.

I can only conjecture on this, but I can imagine a scenario where this woman made a promise to her family and herself to get help and had done everything up to this point that was asked of her. As an alcoholic/addict, she had probably previously told a lot of lies and made a lot of excuses about showing up late and or not doing the right thing and felt it was very important that she be on time for her admission. She was probably already very anxious and under a lot of stress.

Now that she’s really trying; some snotty, arrogant airline employee (and we all know the type) tells her she can’t board and she became upset and maybe a little loud and agitated. She might have been afraid that if she showed up late, no one would believe her or left on her own for hours waiting for the next flight, she might give into temptation and the stress and end up in the airport bar. Just pure conjecture, but I can imagine her stress level and desperation.

If she was dangerously agitated and or visibly drunk then security absolutely did the right thing to detain and restrain and detain her, but I have a lot of questions about what happened between the time she was cuffed and put in a holding cell and the time she was discovered dead.

For one thing, if she was that deranged and or drunk she should not have been left alone for any extended time even if restrained. For another, if she was properly restrained, she would have to have been a contortionist and double jointed in order to strangle her own neck with her hand cuffs. How much force was used and how much force was actually necessary?

Before her arrest did anyone from the airline really try to talk to her and calm her down or was she just cuffed and led away?

This whole story begs more questions than answers.

This is the part I don’t understand. If she was in a secure and confined holding area, why was she still handcuffed? Why was she handcuffed in the first place? Was she being violent? Did she spazz out, or do something that could not have otherwise been resolved by a burly security guard showing her the exit door?

All this stuff has been explained. The video has been shown.

Prisoners all over the county are handcuffed to benches so cops don't have to stand there and watch them. You know that.