The family of Carol Gotbaum has filed a notice of claim today against the City of Phoenix, opening up the door to a lawsuit in the wake of Ms. Gotbaum’s death. Carol Gotbaum, the daughter-in-law of Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, died last September while being held by police in a cell at the Phoenix Airport. Reports say that the family will sue for an amount in the neighborhood of $8 million.
She had been traveling alone from New York City to an alcohol treatment center in Arizona when, according to police, she began screaming after she missed her flight. She was taken into custody and left in a holding cell in the airport. When police checked in on her minutes later, they found her dead, accidentally strangled with her own shackles.
The Gotbaum family feel the police did not handle the situation correctly in allowing an emotionally distraught woman with a history of depression and alcohol abuse to remain in a cell without supervision. The Phoenix Police counter that they could never have known about her fragile emotional state and that they handled the situation as well as they could with the information they had at the time. They also stuck it to the family–chastising them for allowing Gotbaum to travel to Arizona on her own.
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A friend of mine works at that Airport with security. He told me every employee knows that they are being filmed, and that they are reminded of this daily. He also told me that this happens more fequently that one would suspect, and there are standard operating procedures dictated by training manuals overviewed by experts. The “witness” reports in the media contradict the security video. She was talked to by security before they “took her down”, and she was dead long before her husband called the airport. Never trust media interviews when a security tape is available. If there is any blame, it comes from her actions and the lack of action by her family. I am sick and tired of people in this country blaming everyone but themselves. My father was an alcoholic, and everytime he beat me or my mother I didn’t excuse it with “he has an illness, he needs help, he’s not responsible for his actions because he’s sick”. When a drunk driver (most of whom are addicts) kills themselves or someone else, we don’t sue the manufacturing or car company, we place the blame where it belongs. After all is said and done, it comes down to this. She was an adult that choose to get drunk, become belligerent, and stupidly killed herself to no ones fault but her own.