Warning: This article contains a brief discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing.
The city of Fontana, California, has agreed to a settlement of $900,000 with a man who was coerced into a false confession under extreme psychological pressure.
In 2018, Thomas Perez Jr. reported his father, 71-year-old Thomas Perez Sr., missing to the police.
What followed was an unexpected and distressing experience with law enforcement for Perez Jr.
The elder Perez had taken the family dog for a walk around 10pm on August 7, 2018, but the dog returned shortly without him.
Despite Perez Jr. stating he had no knowledge of his father’s whereabouts, investigators did not believe him, subjecting him to a 17-hour interrogation where they accused him of murdering his father.
Eventually, it was discovered that Perez Sr. was alive and the city decided to settle with Thomas Perez Jr. after a civil lawsuit was initiated on his behalf.
According to court documents referenced by The Sun, detectives falsely informed Perez Jr. that his father’s body had been found and was at the morgue.
They claimed to have evidence implicating Perez Jr. in his father’s death, but he insisted he was innocent.
Detectives suggested that Perez Jr. might have repressed memories of the crime.
During the interrogation, detectives reportedly threatened to euthanize Perez’s dog and brought her in for a final farewell.
One detective questioned Perez: “How can you sit there, how can you sit there and say you don’t know what happened, and your dog is sitting there looking at you, knowing that you killed your dad?
“Look at your dog. She knows, because she was walking through all the blood,” they continued.
Perez Jr. found solace with his dog on the floor before eventually making a false confession.
He claimed to have stabbed his father multiple times after being struck with a beer bottle.
Perez Jr. was taken into custody but was later admitted to a mental health facility for evaluation following a suicide attempt in the interrogation room.
Nevertheless, there was a significant development that emerged a few hours post-confession.
It turned out that Perez’s father was alive, found at Los Angeles International Airport, preparing to fly to Northern California to visit his daughter.
The police did not immediately inform Perez Jr. of his father’s status, instead obtaining a warrant to search the home for evidence of an alleged assault on an ‘unknown victim’.
No incriminating evidence was located.
In legal documents and testimonies following the interrogation, police maintained they had justifiable reasons to suspect Perez Jr. was deceitful during the initial missing person report.
They cited his calm demeanor during the 911 call and the disorderly state of the home as suspicious.
A police dog reportedly detected the scent of a corpse in Perez Sr.’s bedroom, and police also observed minor blood stains in the residence.
Attorney Jerry Steering launched a civil lawsuit on behalf of Perez Jr., alleging that the officers ‘psychologically tortured’ him into a false confession, without verifying his father’s death.
Steering attributed the home’s disorder to ongoing renovations and the blood stains to diabetes tests conducted by Perez Sr.
The lawyer also stated that detectives denied Perez Jr. access to his medications for high blood pressure, asthma, depression, and stress for many hours.
U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee described Perez Jr.’s distress during the interrogation in her case summary, noting that he was pulling out his hair and tearing off his shirt.
“He was sleep-deprived, mentally ill, and significantly undergoing symptoms of withdrawal from his psychiatric medications,” Gee wrote.
Gee rejected police assertions that Perez Jr. was free to leave at any point, stating that the ‘circumstances suggested to Perez that he was not free to leave’.
She criticized the tactics employed by the detectives, even though she acknowledged they had a basis to suspect a crime.
“A reasonable juror could conclude that the detectives inflicted unconstitutional psychological torture on Perez,” wrote Gee.
“Their tactics indisputably led to Perez’s subjective confusion and disorientation, to the point he falsely confessed to killing his father, and tried to take his own life.”
The city of Fontana recently settled the lawsuit for $900,000. Of the officers involved in the interrogation, three are still with the department, while one has retired.
If you or someone you know is in crisis or struggling, Mental Health America provides help. You can reach a 24-hour crisis center by calling or texting 988, or webchat at 988lifeline.org. For assistance through the Crisis Text Line, text MHA to 741741.