The Pink Flamingo :: Have Maricopa’s Finest Finally Put Their Boots In It?

For several weeks now I have been providing information about the problems in Maricopa County and Phoenix with the various law enforcement agencies, including famed conservative sheriff Joe Arapio. Over the years there have been enough questionable inmate deaths in Maricopa to warrant multi-million dollar legal actions. Any normal law enforcement regime would be out of office. But in the increasingly ultra-conservative environs of Phoenix, things get swept under the proverbial rug. This time, though, maybe something might be done to expose the problems in the community. The real problem is the fact that this horrific sort of death is all-too frequent in Maricopa County. Perhaps the light of day will prevent another person from dying.

Contrary to protestation of their gentleness, witnesses to the confrontation between Carol Ann Gotbaum and security said she was screaming that she was being hurt.

“…Gotbaum, the daughter-in-law of New York City Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, was on her way to an alcohol rehabilitation clinic Friday when she missed her plane and started to scream. Police handcuffed her and put her in a holding room.  "She was screaming, 'You're hurting me! The handcuffs are too tight on me!'" the woman said.  The Phoenix medical examiner is attempting to learn whether she strangled herself with her handcuffs, as police say. Autopsy results have yet to be released, but critics of the police are already crying foul.   "One has to wonder whether there was not some over-reaction, some excessive force and entirely inappropriate response to the problem here," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.  After the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks security was intensified at airports around the country. The question in this case is whether all that new security did more harm than good.  "They come there with weapons. They come there with an orientation towards force -- that's what police officers do," John Jay College Professor Eugene O'Donnell said. "And they should be reserved, absolutely reserved, for situations where they are needed and where there really is a genuine breach of the peace, not the kinds of scenes that are repeated all over the country every day in airports."  Phoenix police have insisted they were following procedure in the case. And reports of Gotbaum's alcoholism and even two suicide attempts suggest she's had an unstable past. …”

The exquisite irony here is the fact that there have been many, many problems in Maricopa of a similar nature. The difference this time is the fact that this time, according to The Feathered Bastard,

“…No comment from crackerjack attorney Mike Manning yet. Manning was retained by the Gotbaum family to monitor the progress of the inquiry into Carol Gotbaum's demise. Phoenix cops say she was somehow able to strangle herself with her own handcuffs while in a holding cell. Yesterday, Manning characterized Gotbaum's treatment by Phoenix cops as "astounding." Gotbaum's stepmother-in-law Betsy Gotbaum, Public Advocate for the City of NY, stated Carol Gotbaum was "manhandled" by the PHX PD. The PHX PD claim they did nothing wrong, but they definitely picked the wrong person to screw up on. Her hubby's relations are fixtures on the Big Apple's political scene. Real Knickerbocker power-brokers. This ain't no homeless dood who accidentally, um, "choked himself" in the pen….”

Raw Story has a forensics view of Gotbaum’s death.

“…However, "Attorney Michael Manning, who was hired by Gotbaum's family to monitor the police investigation, said it doesn't seem possible she could have killed herself." "She was handcuffed behind her back and shackled to a table," Manning said. "It doesn't make sense that she could have physically managed to strangle herself."According to a guest on CBS News's The Early Show, forensic pathologist Daniel J. Spitz, "It's really not conceivable that she would be able to use the handcuffs that are holding her hands behind her back to cause a compressive force to her neck," but the chain running from the cuffs to the bench might conceivably have done it. "The autopsy is going to need to be done to confirm there was a compressive force to neck and that the cause of death is asphyxiation. It is also going to need to exclude that drugs or alcohol played a role or she had some unknown natural disease which played a role."…”

Earlier this week, the Feathered Bastard wrote,

“…Brass-knuckles PHX attorney Mike Manning has been retained by the Gotbaums, and his expertise is positional asphyxia, obviously relevant in this instance. He's successfully sued the office of Sheriff Joe Arpaio on many occasions, winning multimillion dollar verdicts. In other words, he ain't playin' tiddlywinks, pardner. The more we learn about the nature of the restraints, the more it looks like officers f&*$#@ up by leaving Gotbaum alone in the hysterical condition she was in. Phoenix PD says she was handcuffed behind her back, with a 16-inch chain threaded through the cuffs, and Manning has said she was shackled to a bench. Hard to believe PHX cops would intentionally choke a little woman of less than 110 pounds to death. Still, it's almost as hard to believe that she could pull off the Houdini move necessary to strangle herself, unless she was some kind of contortionist….”

The Feathered Bastard also reports that Dr. Cyril Wecht arrived in Phoenix this evening to perform an additional autopsy. Ligature marks were found around Gotbaum’s throat,

“…Manning said he had an investigator present for the autopsy: "We learned that there were ligature marks on her neck. We're pretty sure they were caused by the shackle." Manning also mentioned that they did not expect a report from Wecht for about three weeks, as Wecht had to leave almost immediately after the autopsy to testify in another case tomorrow… "We think it will show what we expect, that she was emotionally disturbed, she was upset, she was angry, she was loud, and that there needed to be some sort of police intervention," he admitted. "But again, what those people are taught is no different than what's taught in any other part of the civilized world, and that is, if you have to intervene, you intervene humanely and safely, and you would immediately get medical assistance for someone who emotionally disturbed." Manning said that though they were not sure, he and the Gotbaum family anticipated that toxicology results would show that Carol Gotbaum had been drinking prior to missing her flight to Tucson, where she was to enter rehab at the Cottonwood de Tucson addiction treatment center. He asserted that she was sober when she left NYC, and that the text-mails to her husband Noah indicated she was sober when she landed….”