November 1, 2007
Phoenix PD Release More Details in Carol Gotbaum's Death
Witnesses told police that Carol Gotbaum was "teary" during her flight from New York to Phoenix, according to new documents released by the Phoenix Police Department. Another witness says the mother of three, who was traveling to Tucson for alcohol rehabilitation, may have also ordered an alcoholic drink during the flight.
Carol Gotbaum became upset when she missed her connection to Tucson, yelling and throwing things, and the Phoenix police took her into custody. She was later found dead in her holding cell, from apparent self-strangulation, possibly during an attempt to escape her shackles. Questions have been raised about whether the police acted properly in dealing with her, and the Gotbaum family, which includes her stepmother-in-law Betsy, NYC's Public Advocate, has hired a lawyer and investigator to probe the circumstances of her death and criticized the police during her funeral.
Two hundred pages of documents were released by the Phoenix police, and some of the details include:
- When told of his wife's death, Noah Gotbaum said, "They killed her, they killed her."
- A passenger on the NY-to-Phoenix flight said, "Ms. Gotbaum said that someone would have come with her, but it was her decision to do it on her own."
- A flight attendant says she served Gotbaum a Bloody Mary in the plane's galley, but another passenger says she didn't see Gotbaum drink.
- Servers at a Phoenix Airport restaurant where it was believed Gotbaum may have had a drink do not remember serving her.
- Betsy Gotbaum asked the Phoenix police to use Carol Gotbaum's maiden name "so as to insulate her and her family from media coverage."
|
Yeah, the police did what they had to do.
Except for that part about leaving a mentally disturbed woman alone handcuffed to a chair.
But other than that they had to do what they did.
she wasn't mentally disturbed. she was an alcoholic acting unruly in an airport of all places. how did the police know anything before her arrest? if she was smart, she may have said nothing to them after her arrest. i do not, from all i have read here, blame the police.
the blame goes to her family. regardless if this woman wanted to "go it alone" she should have been escorted by a family member or friend.
Read it again. Like I said, the police did what they had to do -- except for the part about leaving a mentally disturbed woman alone handcuffed to a chair.
I'm not faulting the cops for what they did to her in the terminal. She was acting wacky in a public and protected space, she didn't cooperate, and so they took her away. No problem. But they shouldn't have left her alone the way they did.
Whether a family member should have been with her is a different question.
is betsy her stepmother or mother-in-law?
regardless, my belief is, her family is to blame, not the AZ Police.
There's a lot of blame to go around, but shame on the family for not sending someone to travel with her.
I wish this story would stop resurfacing. The only new evidence seems to be saying "Eyewitness accounts disagree." People's memories of conflict are notoriously unreliable.
Let's wait for the other (biased) autopsy before jumping to any conclusions.
i don't care about this person.
where's the videotape?
How could the police know that she was unstable? Was there some big tattoo on her face that said, "Heh look at me I'm a Jewish princess alcoholic from New York City who happens to be related to the Gottbaum family, so go fuck yourself if I'm late for my plane because I had a pop or two, I deserve to get on it anyway." Is that what the coroner is going to come up with?
Did Betsy Gotbaum actually ask, "the Phoenix police to use Carol Gotbaum's maiden name "so as to insulate her and her family from media coverage?"
An individual so ugly as Betsy was probably covering herself because she didn't want photographers to show the public how utterly ugly she looks.
Man is she ugly in an unmanly,or is it a manly way?
snoopy's got an ax to grind!
How did the police know she was unstable?
Did you see the videotape? She was acting nuts in the terminal and was screaming, throwing her cell phone, crying hysterically, collapsing on the floor, etc. She was OBVIOUSLY mentally unstable, even if she wasn't obviously an alcoholic.
not missing her at all...
say hello to the other privleged self entitled drug addicts & alcoholics in hell...
It doesn't matter whether she had a drink. It doesn't matter whether Betsey wanted Carol Ann's maiden name used. Would any of these things justify her strangulation by the airport police? In a word, NO.
This police report is just a barrage of excuses to somehow justify her murder. What is clear is that they admit she was strangled to death in police custody. You cannot strangle yourself to death. It is even more impossible to strangle yourself to death while handcuffed behind your back.
They executed her for a misdemeanor and none of their justifications trying to blame the victim would justify their actions. Police brutality at airports is out of control and must be stopped at once.
This woman should've been escorted by her loving family. Regardless of what a nanny-state people believe the US to be, the ultimate responsibility of ensuring you and your family member's safety rests with yourself.
The police took a drunk and disruptive person into custody, they put in her into confinement for sobering up. That is procedure. The police is not there to babysit or hold your hand.