Officers Probed in Woman’s Death

Nine Ensenada police officers are being investigated regarding their alleged involvement in the fate of an Irvine college student who died this month while in their custody, Mexican officials said Friday.

The investigation is expected to wrap up next week, and the findings will be forwarded to a judge for review, said Rosa Isela, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office in Ensenada.

No one has been arrested or charged in the death of Pauline Del Carmen Baeza-Saucedo, 20, of Irvine who, according to Isela, died Aug. 9 from a skull fracture when her head hit the jail floor. Authorities are dismissing an earlier account by Ensenada police that the woman had committed suicide in her cell, Isela said.

“We believe that she was dropped as the officers carried her into the cell,” Isela said in a telephone interview.

On Aug. 8, Baeza-Saucedo was trying to “kill time” in Mexico while waiting for relatives to arrive at their San Diego home, said her mother, Carmen Saucedo. The young woman often traveled with friends to attend concerts in Rosarito, her mother said, but this was the first time she’d been to Ensenada.

Family members and authorities said they don’t know what she was doing or who she was with when she arrived in Ensenada. But on Aug. 9, Isela said, Baeza-Saucedo was found sleeping in a vehicle at a used-car lot near downtown. According to the police report, she said, Baeza-Saucedo appeared drugged as officers arrived and she became combative when they attempted to take her into custody.

According to a statement issued by prosecutors Friday, police told investigators that Baeza-Saucedo began hitting her head against the window and side of the car as they attempted to pull her from it.

Isela said investigators could not substantiate the police version of events. And a video, she said, showed that Baeza-Saucedo was not aggressive or resisting arrest when she was brought to police headquarters. Police told investigators that they later -- at 11:15 p.m. -- discovered her lying on the floor inside her cell and called for medical help.

Toxicology tests performed at the time of the autopsy showed that Baeza-Saucedo had drugs in her system “consistent” with methamphetamine, Isela said.

Saucedo said her daughter suffered from a bipolar medical condition and may have been disoriented because she had temporarily stopped taking her medication.”I’m sure it had a lot to do with her disorientation,” Saucedo said. “That’s one of the side effects of not taking the medication. She probably didn’t even know she was in Ensenada. She was probably scared, stressed and lost her equilibrium.”

Saucedo said she was upset with Ensenada police, who she believed could have saved her daughter’s life by promptly calling paramedics.

“She would have been alive,” the mother said.