Man’s Death in Mexican Jail Investigated as Murder : Law enforcement: New autopsy casts doubt on report that North Hollywood resident hanged himself.

The death of a North Hollywood man in police custody in Mexico is being investigated by Mexican authorities as a possible murder instead of a suicide, as police originally classified the death, U.S. and Mexican government officials said Thursday.

But the investigation into the death of Mario Amado, 29, could be hampered by differences in the countries’ legal systems regarding what investigators expect to find and how long it will take them to reach conclusions, officials of both governments acknowledged.

The case now turns on a second autopsy that casts doubt on official police reports that Amado hanged himself with his sweater from a window bar in the jail of the Baja California town of Rosarito. He died June 6, less than an hour after police arrested him at a beachfront condominium on charges that he had beaten his girlfriend.

Dr. Richard Siegler, a Los Angeles pathologist hired by Amado’s family, concluded after his autopsy June 12 that the presence of three cups of blood in the liver capsule--which he said was also noted previously by a Mexican coroner--is “strong evidence for a blow to the upper abdomen. Such a blow and the resulting hemorrhage would likely produce shock, during which time the victim would not likely have been able to hang himself.”

This constitutes “new evidence” which can, under Mexican law, prompt authorities to reopen the investigation, wrote Edwin P. Cubbison, U.S. Consul General in Tijuana, in a July 30 memo to U.S. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), who represents the congressional district where Amado’s family lives.

The results of the second autopsy were submitted to Mexican federal authorities this month, said Amado’s brother, Joe, 49, of Van Nuys.

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He and his family say that Siegler’s autopsy reinforces their belief that Mario Amado did not take his own life.

Luis Ortega Ramirez, director of security for the city of Tijuana, said in June that three law enforcement agencies investigated the death.

“The medical report shows no signs of violence,” he said. “The death resulted from asphyxiation.”

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City protested in June to Mexican federal officials, complaining that local police did not notify the U.S. consulate in Tijuana about Amado’s death. The consulate learned of the death from newspaper reports.

Berman, who pressed to have the case reopened at the urging of Amado’s family, has arranged for Joe Amado to give the gray pullover sweater with which his brother purportedly hanged himself to Mexican authorities as evidence--in the presence of FBI agents, said Rose Castaneda, an aide to Berman.

The dead man’s sister, Delores Amado, said she obtained the sweater from Rosarito police when she claimed the body.

“We’re not taking any chances this time,” Joe Amado said, adding that even if his brother wanted to kill himself, he could not have done so with his sweater. “I want the FBI to be there in Congressman Berman’s office when we turn over the sweater. Our family wants whoever killed him arrested and prosecuted.”