A witness saw cops carrying a “noncombative, not resisting” Carole Anne Gotbaum into a Phoenix airport holding cell and “wondered if she was dead,” her family’s lawyer said yesterday.
The new account suggests that the daughter-in-law of Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum already was dying, possibly of asphyxia, before she was placed, handcuffed and shackled, in the cell Friday, said the lawyer, Michael Manning.
That version of the events was flatly contradicted by Phoenix cops, who claimed last night in their first detailed narrative of what they say happened that Gotbaum had fought with officers but was not hurt.
And they insisted she continued to “yell and scream” while she was brought to the airport holding cell, where she was found dead.
Manning earlier had blasted the cops for what he called the “tackle-and-shackle episode.”
“The cops took her down without attempting to calm her, put a knee to her back, and carted her off,” Manning said. “The family wants to give the Phoenix Police Department the benefit of the doubt, but it’s becoming more and more difficult as the evidence comes in.”
That evidence includes an account from a woman who told Manning, “I saw them carry her into that holding cell, and she was utterly docile,” according to the lawyer.
The woman said Gotbaum “was noncombative, not resisting. She wondered if she was dead,” the lawyer said.
The tragedy unfolded when Gotbaum, 45, who was headed to an alcohol-rehab center in Tucson, suddenly went berserk in the Phoenix airport terminal after she missed a flight.
The police account says three cops tried to arrest her, leading to a scuffle. The officers and Gotbaum all fell to the ground and continued to fight.
The officers picked Gotbaum “up on her feet and two officers then began to escort her to a holding area,” said department spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill.
Once there, Gotbaum was “handcuffed with her hands behind her back, per Phoenix Police Department policy. Ms. Gotbaum was still uncooperative and the officers had to periodically slide her forward, with one officer holding each arm in order to get her to the holding area,” Hill said.
Gotbaum “continued to be uncooperative and did not allow herself to be searched” by a female officer, the statement said.
“At this time, officers felt, due to their experience and the actions that had taken place, Ms. Gotbaum was not a threat to others or to herself,” Hill said.
Police said departmental policy permits cops to leave people alone in holding cells, but requires they be checked once every 15 minutes. Gotbaum had been there six to eight minutes unmonitored, the statement said.
“Officers had no information at this time that Ms. Gotbaum had traveled unescorted and alone from New York City to Phoenix . . . in order to seek treatment for a substance-abuse issue, as was later released by others,” Hill said. “Again, officers were totally unaware of this information.”
When cops found Gotbaum unconscious, they “removed the handcuffs” and sprang into action to revive her, Hill said.
Her hands had been cuffed behind her. But when she was found, they were in the front of her body with a shackle chain pressed against her neck.
Cops tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and CPR – and Gotbaum “vomited into one officer’s mouth,” Hill said.
“The officer spit up himself, but continued to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while CPR continued.”
Hill said the officers had “no knowledge of any of Ms. Gotbaum’s personal issues.”
The results of an official autopsy and one performed by Cyril Wecht, the pathologist hired by Gotbaum’s family, are not expected for some time.
But “unless she had cancer or heart disease, it’s pretty clear that she died from asphyxia . . . related to the chain they shackled her with,” said Manning.