Woman died at airport on way to rehab

Guess she should have taken that trip sooner.

A woman who died after being handcuffed and detained at the Phoenix airport was on her way to an alcohol rehabilitation program in Tucson, her family said Monday, accusing police of manhandling her during the ordeal.

What's that smell? Oh, it's a scandal.

Carol Anne Gotbaum, 45, was late for a flight Friday and became angry when a gate crew didn't let her on the plane. Officers handcuffed her behind her back and took her to a holding room, where she kept screaming, authorities said.

Until she died. She was pretty quiet after that.

"She was a loving and devoted mother of three children under the age of nine who was on her way to an alcohol rehabilitation facility to seek treatment," Betsy Gotbaum, the victim's stepmother-in-law, said in a statement.

Loving mother of three going to an alcohol treatment program? I can understand that.

Carol Gotbaum "appears to have been manhandled by the Phoenix Police Department," said Gotbaum, New York City's public advocate. "She cried out for help at the airport, but her pleas appear to have been met by mistreatment."

Everybody screams for help when they're being arrested. No one ever helps. Cause you know, the cops, they're the ones you usually scream for help to. And if they're the ones you need help from, you're fucked.

Police spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill said officers checked on Gotbaum regularly while she was detained. During one of the checks, officers found Gotbaum unconscious with her hands "pressed against her neck area," Hill said.

Strangled herself? Isn't that impossible though.