Betsy Gotbaum's daughter-in-law dies in Phoenix airport
Sunday, September 30th 2007, 2:24 AM
Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum
The daughter-in-law of city Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum died Friday after she was handcuffed by cops and put in a holding cell at an Arizona airport, authorities said yesterday.
Phoenix police said Carol Anne Gotbaum, 45, may have strangled herself while struggling to free herself from the cuffs.
She was arrested at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport after getting into a confrontation with gate crews who refused to allow her to board a plane to Tucson, said Sgt. Andy Hill, a Phoenix police spokesman.
"We are extraordinarily upset," Betsy Gotbaum told the Daily News last night.
"We are very concerned about what happened at Phoenix airport. It's under investigation and we are following that investigation," she said. "She has three very small children. It's a very delicate matter."
A man who answered the phone at Carol Anne Gotbaum's W. 95th St. townhouse apartment last night said, "This is a private family matter. Let us mourn in peace."
Carol Anne Gotbaum, originally from South Africa, married Betsy Gotbaum's stepson Noah in a ceremony at Central Park's Loeb Boathouse in 1995. It was her second marriage; the first ended in divorce.
A US Airways spokesman said the plane was already preparing to depart when Carol Anne Gotbaum, who was traveling alone, arrived at the gate.
She was rebooked on the next flight, but "she became extremely irate, apparently running up and down the gate area," airline spokesman Derek Hanna said yesterday.
Officers handcuffed Gotbaum and took her to the holding cell at the airport, where she kept screaming, authorities said.
Hill said officers in a room next to the cell checked on her about 10 minutes later when she stopped screaming and found her unresponsive.
Hill said it appears Gotbaum may have tried to get out of her handcuffs.
"[She] had possibly tried to manipulate the handcuffs from behind her to the front, got tangled up in the process and they ended up around her neck," he said.
A cause of death will be determined by the Maricopa County medical examiner.
"She was very agitated and irate and angry," Hill said. "These are the things that led to the disorderly conduct arrest."
Authorities said neither a Taser nor pepper spray was used on Gotbaum.
The daughter of a retired commander of the South African Navy Diving School, Carol Anne Gotbaum had a master's of business administration degree from a prestigious Johannesburg university and worked for a time as a senior buyer for a British department store.
Noah Gotbaum is the son of Betsy's husband, Victor Gotbaum, and his former wife, Dr. Sarah Gotbaum. Victor Gotbaum is a retired labor leader who served for 22 years as president of AFSCME District Council 37, New York's largest public employee union.
With Brian Harmon and News Wire Services
Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/09/29/2007-09-29_betsy_gotbaums_daughterinlaw_dies_in_pho.html
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