Carol Gotbaum death: Police appear to be withholding initial transcript(s)

[pnwmom]

The Phoenix police have claimed that they released all the phone transcripts, and that the first one occurred 70 minutes AFTER Gotbaum's death. But the first transcript provided CLEARLY shows that it was not the first conversation the husband had with them. There was at least one prior dispatcher, and Mr. Gotbaum repeatedly expressed his concern that no one had called him back. Reading all the transcripts is like something out of Kafka. I copied these segments out of a PDF file from the New York Times. Link here:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/05/police-report-details-frantic-calls-by-gotbaums-husband/

Gotbaum: Uhm, a very, very close family friend, David Watson, is on his way to you right now.

Communications: Okay.

Gotbaum: Uhm, He – he will drive her down to, uh, Tucson to Rehab, uhm, she is , un , in a . . . I’ve -- I’ve said it before and I’m actually quite unhappy that I have not heard back, because the police don’t really understand what they’re dealing with right now and no one has called me, but he does, David understands and David will be in Terminal 4 or wherever the police are in about five minutes.

SNIP

Gotbaum: He can take full custody. He . . . They are waiting for her down in Cottonwood at . . .At the Rehab Center down there.

SNIP

Communications: Okay, yeah, I think someone talked to the other dispatcher on that earlier and we passed along that information.

SNIP

Gotbaum: It concerns me Mike, that they have not called me,

SNIP

Communications: Well I will pass this on to Lieutenant and once again, and see what they will do. . .

SNIP

Gotbaum: What number is that?

Gotbaum: I just dialed that number and they said they don’t know anything about it.

Communications: No, that’s the number you’re on right now.

[Richard Steele]

1. Witholding evidence sure doesn't make me believe their unlikely explanation for her death. nm

[havocmom]

2. Had the coroner turned over the rest of her body parts yet

or are they still withholding THAT evidence?

[Pavulon]

3. That is not done until a COD is determined

that is normal.

[pnwmom]

12. Why did the police pathologist not wait for the family pathologist

to arrive before he began the autopsy? He knew the family's pathologist was travelling there to observe it -- and that the plane had been delayed -- but he went ahead anyway.

The family's pathologist had the same right to examine the full body as the police pathologist. Why were the parts withheld from him?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

17. Withholding her throat is normal?

On what planet?

[spotbird]

4. The tapes they released were ridiculous.

They were fuzzy, edited, and distant. The shots of the 9/11 hijackers were more clear. The authorities in Phoenix would have us believe technology has deteriorated since then.

I wonder what the real tapes show.

[Evergreen Emerald]

5. why didn't the husband go with her?

she was drunk and suicidal and he let her go?

[NOLALady]

6. Does that mean that it's his fault that she's dead?

[Evergreen Emerald]

7. I don't know her cause of death, so I can't say that, but certainly

if he had been with her, in her fragile state, she would not have ended up dead.

[pnwmom]

10. Not necessarily. He might not have been able to keep her calm if they

had been denied entry to the plane.

That is another strange thing. US Air's site says passengers may be denied boarding if they aren't checked in and in the waiting area 15 minutes before the flight. She was checked in and in the waiting area 25 minutes before the flight, but they had already given away her seat.

We don't know what would have happened if the husband were there. They still might have stopped to get a bite to eat, and they still might have been denied boarding. And since she was in the throes of alcohol withdrawal (even if she had had something to drink at the airport), almost anything might have set her off.

[pnwmom]

8. She had been sober for 8 days before she left, and she had been

scheduled to take an earlier non-stop flight. She insisted that she travel alone. At the last minute she decided she wanted to take her children to school first (they were attending a new school) and changed her flight to a later connecting one.

I'm sure her husband will always regret that he didn't force the issue -- but she was legally competent, and Al-Anon will tell you you can't make an alcoholic get better.

[Evergreen Emerald]

9. there are lots of things that happened along the path to her death

I am not assigning blame to anyone, yet--including the police, the airlines, security, her husband, or herself, all who had a part in her path. It was tragic and little children are without their mother today because of her death.

[pnwmom]

11. I agree, there is probably shared responsiblity. But I think it's very suspicious

that the police claim they've released all the phone transcripts, when they clearly haven't, and that the videotape they've released has obviously been edited.

And I don't understand why they waited hours, fielding several fruitless calls from the husband, and putting him through that much more hell, before they finally told him the truth that she was dead.

And why they didn't wait for the family's pathologist to arrive before conducting the autopsy, and why they tried to withhold the brain and the throat from him when they finally turned over the body for a second autopsy.

It all adds up to a coverup, and the question is why.

[Evergreen Emerald]

13. I know from experience that the media gets it wrong and the defense attorney

does not always tell the whole truth to the media. So, I cannot say at this point what has been provided and what has not.

[pnwmom]

15. Can you look at the transcript the police say is the first transcript

and not think something is wrong? Can that possibly be the first transcript?

Can you look at the videotape and not see where it has been edited? Don't you want to know why?

[Evergreen Emerald]

18. To whom is the transcript to be given? To whom is the tape to be given?

I am suspicious of the whole thing, and I will not defer to the defense attorney to get answers. He has a vested interest in stirring up trouble.

[pnwmom]

19. The police department released the transcripts and the tape to the media.

The full set of police documents is available at more than one link. There's no question about what the police have released.

And there is no "defense" attorney.

[Evergreen Emerald]

20. there indeed is an attorney for the family

preparing for a lawsuit. I have seen him on the news.

The police should not be distributing anything to the media, until the inquiry is through. I believe they did in response to the attorney filling the media with dis-information in an attempt to sway the public.

I will await the results of the inquiry.

[pnwmom]

21. It is an important distinction. He's not a defense attorney because

she doesn't need one.

And the police have every right to release the transcripts to the media. But they shouldn't be pretending they've released everything when they haven't.

[spotbird]

14. She had not had

a drink for nine days prior to the trip.

The husband didn't realize the authorities would kill her.

[pnwmom]

16. Hindsight is great, isn't it?

Too bad it always happens too late.