A famed pathologist conceded yesterday that a drunken Carol Anne Gotbaum strangled herself in a Phoenix airport holding cell – but he also blamed that city’s cops for her death, accusing them of “crude, rude, brutal, aggressive treatment.”
Dr. Cyril Wecht, who was hired by Gotbaum’s family, insisted that the Phoenix police “absolutely mishandled” the situation and the Sept. 28 death of the mother of three could “unquestionably” have been prevented.
He claimed that the cops roughed up the daughter-in-law of Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, didn’t watch her while she was in the holding cell and failed to summon help immediately when they found her unconscious.
“That insensitivity, that crude, rude, brutal, aggressive treatment, are directly responsible for her death,” Wecht said.
“This is an unquestionably a death that could be prevented – there is no question of that at all in my mind,” he said.
“What you do is get for this women the kind of medical attention that an employee would get or customers who come through that airport everyday would receive.”
Autopsy results released Friday by the Maricopa County medical examiner revealed that Gotbaum, 45, accidentally died of asphyxiation while moving her cuffed hands from the back to the front of her body.
That autopsy also said Gotbaum was intoxicated on a combination of alcohol and two antidepressants and had a blood alcohol reading of 0.24 – three times the legal limit in New York. Cops said they acted by the book.