Officer Carlos Rivera, 31, and Sgt. Frank Pichel, 38, have been relieved of duty with pay while homicide detectives investigate the death of Elew Vazquez-Collazo, 44, who had a record of arrests for narcotics possession.

Vazquez-Collazo was arrested by Rivera on April 10 and was examined in the jail ward of Jackson Memorial Hospital. He was then sent to jail where he died Saturday.

The next morning, an autopsy disclosed that Vazquez-Collazo died of "a ruptured spleen, as a result of trauma,'' the chief said. On Monday, both officers were confronted and advised of their rights. Both chose not to give statements to detectives.

Bill Matthewman, Rivera's lawyer, said Wednesday that his client was innocent.

"He did absolutely nothing wrong,'' Matthewman said. "He's a good veteran cop. If they do a full and fair investigation, he'll be exonerated and returned to duty.''

Pichel's lawyer, Miguel de la O, said Pichel might not have seen what Rivera did to the prisoner, if anything: "Sgt. Pichel has expressed to me that he did not do anything wrong, he did not cover up anything. What is contained in reports that he signed off on are the facts as he understood them at the time.''

O'Brien said a public service aide told investigators that after Vazquez-Collazo was hurt in a scuffle with Rivera, Pichel ordered the aide to write a false injury report. He said nobody wrote a "control-of-person'' report, which is required when an officer uses physical force against anyone. It would not have been necessary to make such a report if Vazquez-Collazo had run, fallen down and hurt himself. Investigators think it did not happen that way.

"Two PSAs and three or four police officers saw parts of what happened,'' O'Brien said. "All their statements are consistent. They say the guy was handcuffed and attempting to bolt from the place and was physically taken down and subdued by officer Rivera.''

A key issue, he said, will be exactly what sort of force and how much of it Rivera used. Police officers are supposed to use only enough force to subdue a prisoner and to stop once the prisoner is under control.

Rivera works the 3 p.m.-midnight shift supervised by Pichel. Their personnel files, especially Pichel's, are stuffed with commendations for their squad's enforcement of prostitution, drunk driving and narcotics laws in the Wynwood and Edgewater districts of the city.

According to Rivera's arrest report, he was on narcotics surveillance when he saw Vazquez-Collazo get out of a car at Northwest First Avenue and 15th Street, approach a man and make a quick hand-to-hand exchange. He sped away, but was captured about a mile away and brought to the police mini-station at 380 NW 24th St. In the car, the report says, Pichel found a clear plastic bag containing a powder that looked like heroin.

"That's all correct, up to the time he bolted,'' O'Brien said.

Rivera wrote in the arrest report that while Vazquez-Collazo was being processed for transport to the county jail, he made a break for it:

The report said Vazquez-Collazo, who was handcuffed, was injured when he fell against a table next to the door.

"The [defendant] lost his footing, falling to the ground, striking a table with his ribs,'' says a separate injury report written by Jose Estevez, the public service aide.

From the mini-station, Vazquez-Collazo was taken to Jackson's jail ward for examination. Then an officer drove him to the jail.

Lt. John Campbell, chief of the homicide squad, said the autopsy report could not conclude that the rupture of the dead man's spleen was consistent with any particular type of blow -- a kick or a punch, for example, or a nightstick.

Campbell attended the autopsy Sunday morning, although he says that at the time he had no particular suspicion of wrongdoing. He went after being notified by the jail Saturday that a Miami Police prisoner had died in custody.

The lieutenant said that during the five days Vazquez-Collazo spent in jail before dying he complained of pain and was examined in the jail's clinic.

Campbell said details about the prisoner's initial examination at Jackson Memorial -- in Ward D, where sick and injured prisoners are kept -- have not been fully investigated.

"We're still really in a preliminary stage. There's a lot we don't know now, a lot of stuff we're still working on,'' he said.

After the autopsy, he assembled a squad of detectives.

"When the guy died, we knew we had a problem,'' he said. "Anytime somebody in custody dies, we do a major investigation. By the end of the Sunday shift, we were aware of at least a possibility of criminal activity. Monday, both were given their Miranda rights.''