Family, Officials Seek Probe of L.A. Man’s Death in Mexico Jail : Inquiry: House painter is second Angeleno in a year to be killed while in custody. Authorities say he died in a scuffle as officers tried to put him in a straitjacket.

The family of the second Los Angeles man to be killed in a Mexican jail in less than a year called Tuesday for the U.S. and Mexican governments to act swiftly in punishing police officers who they say are responsible for his murder and an attempted cover-up.

Also on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles) and a special investigator for the Amnesty International human rights organization said they will take steps to ensure that the Mexican government properly investigates the death of Raul Langarica.

Langarica, 42, a South-Central Los Angeles house painter, died April 14 in the custody of the Jalisco state judicial police in Guadalajara after being arrested on suspicion of murder and dealing drugs.

At a news conference Tuesday, relatives said Langarica was arrested on trumped-up charges and then tortured and killed because Mexican police wanted the more than $8,500 in cash he had brought with him to his birthplace of Guadalajara. Mexican authorities told the family that Langarica fought with police and cellmates while in jail, and that he died while they were trying to put him into a straitjacket.

More than a dozen relatives released photographs showing that Langarica had suffered a deep, three-inch gash on his forehead and other injuries. They also released a death certificate in which Mexican authorities said the cause of death was homicide resulting from a contusion to the chest.

“This case has all the patterns of a human rights violation and the brutality practiced by the Mexican police,” human rights advocate Javier Rodriguez said.

Miguel Escobar, spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles, said he was awaiting a detailed report on the incident before making any comment. “We are not denying that sometimes, as in every country, these human rights violations occur,” he said. “But we do not condone these actions, or allow them to go unpunished.”

Family members and two human rights advocates said there were many troubling discrepancies in police accounts. Although Langarica could have suffered the head injury during a scuffle, they said he never would have put up such a fight and never used drugs, as police alleged. Langarica’s mother and brother, Guillermo, said that when they traveled to Guadalajara to claim the body and get answers, the police refused to cooperate and at first would not even show them the body.

Authorities also initially refused to give back more than $8,500 that relatives said had been taken from Langarica until they produced photographs that proved Langarica had recently won the money in a Spanish-language newspaper contest. Even then, Guillermo Langarica said, several thousand dollars, a watch and a ring were missing.

Officials in Guadalajara had no comment Tuesday.

The family met last Thursday with Roybal-Allard’s staff, and the congresswoman has written to the U.S. Consulate in Guadalajara demanding that consular officials pressure Mexico into investigating the case.

Diego Zavala, Amnesty International’s New Orleans-based investigator for Mexico, said he too would monitor the case closely because of Mexico’s well-documented history of allowing police to torture people with impunity and then failing to investigate, even when cases like Langarica’s are listed as homicides.

Police frequently blame such deaths on inmates, Zavala said, saying they were on drugs or were fighting.

In June, Mario Amado of North Hollywood was found dead in his jail cell in Rosarito. Although Mexican police said it was a suicide, two independent autopsies concluded he was strangled.