Back in September, 71-year old hearing impaired Karen McGee flew from Florida to Austin and was connecting on Alaska Airlines to Seattle. She was a nervous flyer traveling alone for the first time in her life. Her hearing aid wasn’t working well.
Not hearing that her gate had been changed, she missed her connection. And when an Alaska agent became frustrated as she sought help to get rebooked early (there wasn’t actually an earlier flight), the agent called police – who arrested her for trespassing.
The woman claims her wrist and arm were broken as she was strip-searched at the police station and ‘shoved against a wall.’ She says the officer “twisted her handcuffs with enough force to break her arm” and she required surgery. But she didn’t get medical care – just an advil – during her three days in custody. She passed out.
Credit: Austin Police Bodycam Footage
The Austin airport is owned by the city, but she was taken to Travis County jail so it’s the County rather than city government that’s on the hook here, though I’d go after the airline here too. Her attorneys are in talks with the county over a settlement that would avoid an embarrassing lawsuit. Currently they’re negotiating exchange of information that would otherwise become available during discovery.
In the meantime, though, the position of the county is that sure her wrist was broken but that it must have already been broken before their officers arrived and she assaulted the officers when her face hit their fists.
McGee’s attorneys presented Travis County with a presentation that included a slide asserting McGee entered the jail without a broken wrist and left the jail with a broken wrist. According to Webber, Travis County attorneys disputed the first of those facts but not the second. “They don’t dispute that she left the jail with a broken wrist,” Webber said.
Officers had accused the woman of being intoxicated “due to her mannerisms and tone of voice,” not understanding that “her hearing problem can affect the volume of her voice in loud settings.”
“and she assaulted the officers when her face hit their fists.”
Was that really necessary?
You can do better than this.
@1kBrad – while an obvious wisecrack (given the strikethrough of the text) it’s commentary on the police claim that ‘gosh, her arm must’ve already been broken before it got here’ though it caused her to need medical intervention so yeah obviously she was just flying with the pain and manufacturing the arrest so she could sue the police for the injury. Was breaking her wrist really necessary?
1KBrad was obviously the arresting officer.
C’mon Gary, she was obviously faking the deafness and the broken bones. And being old.
This is what sours LE’s reputation. During my tenure there were a few that joined for the wrong intentions, power and exclusiveness. I still remember a fellow officer screaming at a grayed hair elderly lady who stop to ask for directions. She mistake the officer as a guard. NSA/FPO 1985.
What!!?? She got an Advil in jail for broken bones?
There they go coddling them criminals again!
There is a reason we have the acronym ACAB.
She should sue Alaska Airlines for sending the Austin Gestapo to beat her into submission. I guess Alaska uses the same play book as United Airlines. When in doubt, beat the shit out of paying customers.
For all the functionally illiterate here, allow me to speak slowly so perhaps you will understand.
There is no allegation that the police officers broke the women’s wrist. None.
The allegation is that the jailers did so.
Here is a clue for your all: jail personnel are not police officers.
Hate on cops all you want. But don’t be a hypocrite. When your home is burglarized, call another stupid liberal.
To the idiot known as Brad1K, let me remind you that it’s a 71 year old deaf woman whose wrist was broken.
But hey, if I want to physically abuse old women. I’ll call a bootlicker like yourself.
@BC: Now completely illiterate operating here.
The police did not break her wrist.
Don’t let facts get in the way of ignorant opinions.
If the “settlement” is one single penny under $1M (no taxes!), I’d counsel that poor lady to go to court with a VERY good, aggressive lawyer…airline, airport, police, city, county…
Well…if she has a face mask on it might have helped avoid all this. Seriously though, maybe she was a drunk jerk. Always two sides to the story on these deals.
Gary suggests that the whole thing is avoided if the Alaska agent knows how to de-escalate a situation. The woman raised her voice because hard of hearing people often do that; and she was confused as a novice solo flyer, but was never aggressive. Click through to read the backstory before letting fly with uninformed assumptions. The DA refused to prosecute the trespassing charge. If I’m Alaska Airlines I have a training program in place for agents, and it includes concepts for de-escalation and calling law enforcement only as a real last resort or in cases of imminent danger of physical harm. If I”m Travis County I have policies that distinguish levels of force appropriate when confronted with an armed shooter or a confused 71-year-old deaf woman. I hope she gets a good settlement, and I expect she will.
Some people do not need to be traveling alone.
Or should travel with documents explaining their handicap.
NO excuse for injuring her but someone in her family should have taken better steps to protect her through her travels.
I’m 71 and an experienced flyer but I know how easy it is to get confused with sudden gate changes, etc.
1) The agent appears to be a total Karen d-bag. Yelling for the cops because he/she doesn’t know how to deal with a (perhaps) needy customer.
2) Clearly, the sheriff’s department in Travis County is inhabited by a bunch of lefty creeps (who dominate that entire area, so it’s a safe assumption) who have no problem breaking an old woman’s arm , as long as it’s a white woman. This never would have happened had she been BIPOC. This lady? Heck, she might have voted for Trump! Lock her up.
3) If you’re an older white person who can clearly be fingered as a potential Trump voter, be cautious about venturing into navy blue areas – even for connections. Consider them as hazardous as a layover in Moscow.
Any flyer, get over your self. You have absolutely NO idea of the political leanings of any of the participants. You only post here to spread bs. This MAGA crap has no place on this site.
I meant AngryFlyer. Forgive me.
Hey Ege, you know I’m right.
If a travel blog can’t get the travel details right, how do we expect the general public to do so?
The original booking was an Austin connection on Delta. After she missed the ongoing Delta flight because of a gate change, a Delta agent rebooked her on Alaska that evening. She got to the gate and found the plane currently at the gate was going to her destination. But when she asked the gate agent if she could fly on that earlier flight, she was unsure what the answer was, being deaf. So she asked another agent, who perceived that re-asking as harassment and called police.
Gary’s taxes just went up….Keep Austin Woke!
Why haven’t these idiotic cops and their supervisor been put on leave pending being fired. I don’t know where police agencies find people like this and why they keep them. The abuse this woman experienced is SO outrageous and cruel. I also blame her family for allowing her to travel with no assistance.
“April 13, 2023 at 8:02 pm
@BC: Now completely illiterate operating here.
The police did not break her wrist.
Don’t let facts get in the way of ignorant opinions.”
Where I live in the Denver Metro area, many municipalitie’s jails are staffed in part by officers that rotate as street officers and jail personal. I’m guessing you no idea, but please, enlighten us with more facts, clown.
I can’t believe these officers even arrested a 71 year old woman, I would be ashamed of myself.