On behalf of Smiley & Smiley, LLP posted in Personal Injury on Thursday, March 27, 2008.

Carol Gotbaum was on her way from my home town of New York City to a rehab center in Arizona when the trip took a drastic detour.  She apparently became extremely intoxicated on the first leg of her flight, and when she missed her connection in Phoenix, she went haywire  and pitched a fit worse then Paris Hilton getting pulled over by the local police.  The police arrested her, threw her in a closed room, shackled her to the wall and slammed the door shut.  Later she was found dead, having apparently hung herself with the shackles.  Carol's family has now sued the Phoenix police for wrongful death.  I think they have a pretty solid case.  As I discussed today on Headline News, the police had a duty to ensure that she did not harm herself.  They failed to take reasonable steps to restrain and - here's the key - keep her under observation!!  In a shameful move, the police blame her husband for not being on the flight with her.  Her death never should have happened - this was completely preventable.  She was sick, addicted to alcohol and drugs, and on her way to get help.  She may have been acting like a lunatic, but she didn't deserve to die.

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