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Mexican prosecutors are taking the unusual step of jailing six policemen from the resort town of San Jose del Cabo for what they say could be 30 days or more while they investigate how and whether a vacationing Oregonian was beaten to death in officers' custody, according to U.S. officials.
Steve Royster, spokesman for the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, said Tuesday that last week's death of 38-year-old Sam Botner of Yoncalla was "a grave concern." The State Department is monitoring Mexico's investigation, he said.
Botner, a father of three who was vacationing with his wife after returning from a commercial fishing trip, reportedly suffocated on his own blood Aug. 27 in a San Jose del Cabo jail. He was arrested in a condominium parking lot that day when he reportedly got into a fight.
Botner's wife, Kym, said she believes her husband was beaten to death while handcuffed and in police custody. After viewing postmortem photos, Kym Botner said someone at the jail "just mutilated" Sam.
"His nose was totally off the side of his face," she said. "The handcuff marks were horrible."
Typically, authorities are given just two days to investigate before deciding on charges, said the State Department's Royster. It was unclear Tuesday why Mexican authorities had extended the process in this case.
Officials at the Mexican Consulate in Portland said they were waiting to hear about their government's position on the case.
Sergio Hayakawa-Leon, coordinator for the Portland office's protection department, said the office had not received autopsy reports or any video footage related to the case. But he said it wasn't necessarily the Mexican Consulate's job to get involved in the death of an American citizen.
"Our duty is to get involved in the Mexican national issues in the United States, not the American citizens' issues in Mexico," Hayakawa-Leon said.
The equivalent of the attorney general's office in the state of Baja California Sur, which is investigating the case, didn't have any other details available late Tuesday.
But Baja California Sur state deputy prosecutor Omar Barajas told The Associated Press that the police officers gave contradictory statements about the man's incarceration. One confessed to kicking him in the face. Others said the victim hit his face on the ground when they pushed him to the floor to subdue him.
Surveillance video and witness statements indicate that officers struck the victim, Barajas said.
Kym Botner said the incident happened after her husband had returned to their condo while she remained on the beach. She said she heard her husband and another man yelling in the parking lot. A truck with seven or eight policemen pulled into the lot; the men were armed with what looked like machine guns, she said.
The officers arrested her husband, who, she said, was resisting. She said police told her to come to the station the following morning, so she spent an anxious night alone in her condo. The next morning, she went to the police station with the manager of the condos where she and her husband were staying.
The manager acted as an interpreter when Kym Botner was told her husband had died in custody.
"I didn't understand it," she said. "It didn't make sense to me. They didn't know if he fell or got pushed. It was a red flag for me."
She said she was told his nose had been broken. She said her husband is 6-feet-1 and 250 pounds and it would have taken a significant blow to break his nose.
She said it wasn't until that night that she learned police officers were suspected of involvement in the death. She said she met with the Mexican prosecutor in the case, who told her that her husband's death was being investigated as a homicide and that police were involved.
She learned from accounts in the Mexican media and from her conversations with authorities there that her husband was beaten, placed in a cell, then removed and beaten again after two cellmates tried to get help for him.
Kym Botner said the coroner listed his cause of death as asphyxiation.
She said her husband was a fisherman and timber cutter who was raised in Yoncalla. They met in high school and had been married for 12 years. His children range in age from 10 to 16 years old.
"That was one of the hardest things, to have to come home and tell my 10-year-old," she said.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/09/dead_yoncalla_mans_wife_says_h.html
Steve Royster, spokesman for the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, said Tuesday that last week's death of 38-year-old Sam Botner of Yoncalla was "a grave concern." The State Department is monitoring Mexico's investigation, he said.
Botner, a father of three who was vacationing with his wife after returning from a commercial fishing trip, reportedly suffocated on his own blood Aug. 27 in a San Jose del Cabo jail. He was arrested in a condominium parking lot that day when he reportedly got into a fight.
Botner's wife, Kym, said she believes her husband was beaten to death while handcuffed and in police custody. After viewing postmortem photos, Kym Botner said someone at the jail "just mutilated" Sam.
"His nose was totally off the side of his face," she said. "The handcuff marks were horrible."
Typically, authorities are given just two days to investigate before deciding on charges, said the State Department's Royster. It was unclear Tuesday why Mexican authorities had extended the process in this case.
Officials at the Mexican Consulate in Portland said they were waiting to hear about their government's position on the case.
Sergio Hayakawa-Leon, coordinator for the Portland office's protection department, said the office had not received autopsy reports or any video footage related to the case. But he said it wasn't necessarily the Mexican Consulate's job to get involved in the death of an American citizen.
"Our duty is to get involved in the Mexican national issues in the United States, not the American citizens' issues in Mexico," Hayakawa-Leon said.
The equivalent of the attorney general's office in the state of Baja California Sur, which is investigating the case, didn't have any other details available late Tuesday.
But Baja California Sur state deputy prosecutor Omar Barajas told The Associated Press that the police officers gave contradictory statements about the man's incarceration. One confessed to kicking him in the face. Others said the victim hit his face on the ground when they pushed him to the floor to subdue him.
Surveillance video and witness statements indicate that officers struck the victim, Barajas said.
Kym Botner said the incident happened after her husband had returned to their condo while she remained on the beach. She said she heard her husband and another man yelling in the parking lot. A truck with seven or eight policemen pulled into the lot; the men were armed with what looked like machine guns, she said.
The officers arrested her husband, who, she said, was resisting. She said police told her to come to the station the following morning, so she spent an anxious night alone in her condo. The next morning, she went to the police station with the manager of the condos where she and her husband were staying.
The manager acted as an interpreter when Kym Botner was told her husband had died in custody.
"I didn't understand it," she said. "It didn't make sense to me. They didn't know if he fell or got pushed. It was a red flag for me."
She said she was told his nose had been broken. She said her husband is 6-feet-1 and 250 pounds and it would have taken a significant blow to break his nose.
She said it wasn't until that night that she learned police officers were suspected of involvement in the death. She said she met with the Mexican prosecutor in the case, who told her that her husband's death was being investigated as a homicide and that police were involved.
She learned from accounts in the Mexican media and from her conversations with authorities there that her husband was beaten, placed in a cell, then removed and beaten again after two cellmates tried to get help for him.
Kym Botner said the coroner listed his cause of death as asphyxiation.
She said her husband was a fisherman and timber cutter who was raised in Yoncalla. They met in high school and had been married for 12 years. His children range in age from 10 to 16 years old.
"That was one of the hardest things, to have to come home and tell my 10-year-old," she said.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/09/dead_yoncalla_mans_wife_says_h.html
