Airport Victim's Family Wants Answers

The woman who died in police custody after being detained at the Phoenix airport was looking for a place to heal. Now, her politically-connected family is looking for justice.

Carol Anne Gotbaum, 45, was a mother of three young children, and well-educated, with a masters degree received in South Africa, where she grew up, reports CBS News Early Show national correspondent Jeff Glor. She was on her way to an alcohol rehabilitation center in Tucson, Ariz., when officers arrested her for disorderly conduct. Police said she was late for a flight and became angry when a gate crew didn't let her on the plane. Witnesses told police she was yelling and running throughout the terminal.

As police moved in, airport workers reportedly heard Gotbaum yell, "I'm not a terrorist. I'm a sick mom. I need help."

Officers handcuffed her behind her back and took her to a holding room without a surveillance camera, where she kept screaming, authorities said.

After about five to 10 minutes, officers no longer could hear her voice and went to check. Gotbaum was found unconscious with her hands "pressed against her neck area," police spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill said.

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

Attorney Michael Manning, who was hired by Gotbaum's family to monitor the police investigation, said it doesn't seem possible she could have killed herself.

"She was handcuffed behind her back and shackled to a table," he said. "It doesn't make sense that she could have physically managed to strangle herself."

"The autopsy is going to need to be done to confirm there was a compressive force to neck and that the cause of death is asphyxiation. It is also going to need to exclude that drugs or alcohol played a role or she had some unknown natural disease which played a role," forensic pathologist Daniel J. Spitz said on CBS News' The Early Show.

"If this is an asphyxiation, it's because of that other chain which was obviously long enough or could have been long enough to allow a compressive force to her neck," Spitz said.

Spitz is Chief Medical Examiner of Macomb and St. Clair Counties in Michigan, and is not connected with the Gotbaum case.

Manning plans to send a representative to watch the county medical examiner's autopsy of Gotbaum's body Tuesday. He'll conduct his own inquiry as to whether police followed proper procedure.

Manning, a high-profile lawyer who represented the government against failed savings and loan executive Charles Keating, has previously won settlements against Sheriff Joe Arpaio in wrongful-death lawsuits. He said the family hasn't decided whether it should file a lawsuit against Phoenix police.

"Under police procedure you don't treat an emotionally distraught person or even an intoxicated person by handcuffing and shackling them. You get them help," Manning told CBS News. "So we're disappointed that this happened to her. We want to find out why."

Phoenix Police Department Professional Standards Bureau also is conducting an investigation, a standard procedure following an in-custody death.

Police spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill said officers followed established policy while detaining Gotbaum. Police also said their procedures for arresting someone at the airport haven't changed since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

"Everything, so far that we know, is according to policy," Hill said.

"Carol was a wonderful, wonderful person. she was a wonderful mother. she was sweet and kind and loving," Betsy Gotbaum told reporters. She was just five foot seven and just 105 pounds, her stepmother-in-law said.

David Boyer, acting director of the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office, said he didn't have a problem if Gotbaum's family sends someone to the autopsy. Boyer said family members will occasionally ask to have someone present.

Boyer said the autopsy should be complete within a few weeks.

New York City's Public Advocate is an independently elected citywide official, next in line to the mayor, who handles public complaints about the city and its agencies.

Betsy Gotbaum, who may be a candidate for New York City mayor in 2009, earlier served as the city's commissioner of parks and recreation. Her husband Victor Gotbaum is a long-time municipal labor leader and a former member of the city Board of Education.