cityfan,
--with respect to several points in your hypothesis. The claim that the purser threatened to tamper with the captain's meal was posted in another forum around the end of July, and labeled there as third-hand hearsay. (Unless the captain heard the threat directly, it would be second-hand hearsay at best.) So that point, presumably favorable to the captain, has been 'public' for a while.
It was firsthand.
From your post, the captain has yet to return to flight status, and the incident is now about five weeks old. Perhaps United's investigations of such matters move at a glacial pace. His certificate has not been suspended by the FAA.
This is not the first "I am the captain aft of the cockpit door" incident at UAL and is being handled with kid gloves because of previous harassment of this Captain by the company.
Curiously, you raised the possibility that this incident was manufactured by two or more conspiring cabin crew who were aware that the captain was a recent victim of harassment by United.
I don't believe it was "manufactured" in any way, by anyone. It was an unwillingness to acquiesce to Captain's Authority that escalated and, as means of self-defence and pre-emptive investigatory attack, it was characterized as something wholly different by parties who were NOT central to the incident.
For them to test/provoke the captain in such a way suggests that there was a previous incident of questionable judgment or temperament on his part, else why would they embark on such a course of action?
LOL! I guess you have not worked at UAL (or many other carriers) in the post-9/11, post-bankruptcy era, so I would be unkind if I mocked the comment. However, I can assure you there was no previous incident on his part. He is a BIG C Captain (as we call them here) and too many old, think-they-know-it-all F/As take liberties all the time with the crew....from waiting 30 minutes to open the door for a pee break to waiting for an hour for meals, etc, etc....and he was not going to allow this one to get away with a direct and open threat to him.
As you can tell, I applaud his actions and MIGHT even have had her arrested in Miami if it had been me. Interference with the crew is a federal offence and, once he had made the point that they were going to divert and he was to remove her, she DEFINITELY DID interfere with the crew.
As previously stated, I am intimately familiar with what happened and much of it has been greatly distorted on this message board. I realize this is a "rumor" mill and rumors turn to gossip and gossip leads to facts not in evidence being used as the Gospel. I just wanted to set the record straight: he is not a nutter and he WILL return to duty once this has blown over. Either that, or he will "retire" with a seven figure check in his back pocket. As mentioned, the FAA has not lifted a finger for the exercise of his authority FOR GOOD REASON.
Best to all.