$900,000 payout. man reported his (alive) father missing, Calif cops went all out to get him to confess to killing him

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

Thomas Perez Jr. rips his shirt off during a police interrogation in the suspected killing of his father, who had been reported missing but was later found alive. (Screen grab from Fontana police video)

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Within hours after Thomas Perez Jr. called police to report his father missing, he found himself in a tiny interrogation room confronted by Fontana detectives determined to extract a confession that he killed his dad.

Perez had told police that his father, 71-year-old Thomas Perez Sr., went out for a walk with the family dog at about 10 p.m. on Aug. 7, 2018. The dog returned within minutes without Perez’s father. Investigators didn’t believe his story, and over the next 17 hours they grilled him to try to get to the “truth.”

According to court records, detectives told Perez that his father was dead, that they had recovered his body and it now “wore a toe tag at the morgue.” They said they had evidence that Perez killed his father and that he should just admit it, records show.

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At one point during the interrogation, the investigators even threatened to have his pet Labrador Retriever, Margosha, euthanized as a stray, and brought the dog into the room so he could say goodbye. “OK? Your dog’s now gone, forget about it,” said an investigator.

https://www.ocregister.com/2024/05/23/fontana-pays-nearly-900000-for-psychological-torture-inflicted-by-police-to-get-false-confession/

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He was so distraught that he even tried to hang himself with the drawstring from his shorts after being left alone in the interrogation room. Perez was arrested, handcuffed and transported to a mental hospital for 72-hour observation.

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But later that day, the truth derailed the detectives’ theory and their prized confession.

Perez’s father wasn’t dead — or even missing. Thomas Sr. was at Los Angeles International Airport waiting for a flight to see his daughter in Northern California. But police didn’t immediately tell Perez.

[Layzeebeaver]

1. Why does this behaviour not surprise me/

And the cops will get away with it... the tax payers will foot the bill... and there will be no change to the system.

I believe there needs to be community oversight of policing along with the elimination of immunity from prosecution for police. They are also citizens and they are NOT above the law they swore to uphold.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

2. three of the four cops are still employed as cops. I wish the article named them.

[Lancero]

3. Three good cops as far as the department is concerned.

If this is what passes as good for the job, is it any surprise that the average person considers the entire profession to be corrupt?

[Ibarra909]

8. Case info

https://dockets.justia.com/docket/california/cacdce/5:2019cv01623/756754

[LetMyPeopleVote]

25. Welcome to DU

[Lancero]

4. If they managed to wrangle out a confession what would have happened?

Would the cops have disappeared his dad to make the confession stick?

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

5. they did get a confession, the man eventually confessed and was transported to jail.

when dad showed up alive, the cops looked for alternate ways to charge the man... looked for victim (source for spots of blood found in his home).

[Lancero]

6. After driving the man half-way to suicide. Well, I suppose the cops would be pleased if it was all the way.

It would have given them the corpse they so desperately desired.

Worthless pigs.

[Cha]

7. What in the Holy Hell!! These cops

should be Fired & brought up on Excessive force and abuse

[Voltaire2]

9. Demand a fucking lawyer.

Do not, under any circumstances, allow an interrogation of any sort without a lawyer. The police are not your friends, they are not trying to help you.

[harumph]

13. That right there is the answer.

[Think. Again.]

10. Cases like this should NOT be allowed to become normalized.

This is absolutely unnacceptable.

[Solomon]

12. Pfft. It already IS normalized. Innocent people confess under harassment and duress all the time.

[Voltaire2]

18. normalized and completely legal.

We have made our police forces literally a law unto themselves, and whenever there is an effort to reform the way we police ourselves it is just trivial to use racist fear mongering about crime to defeat those efforts.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

21. Feature, not a bug.

[SamKnause]

11. Scum of the earth.

They are trained to fear and hate citizens.

They are trained to lie.

They are trained to lie to cover for one another.

They are a tax funded gang and their gang color is blue.

Qualified immunity allows the cops to be the criminals.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

14. Yall, this can't be reformed.

ACAB.

[Maeve]

15. We allow this sort of thing because we think it's ok to badger people

Been watching old CSI:Miami episodes and have gotten sick of them. David Caruso started out in the show as a decent guy who was passionate for justice, but gradually became a vigilante with a badge, bullying and killing at will. That is NOT what a free society needs as a cop, but it was portrayed as if he was a hero. If that is what our entertainment gives us, that is what we'll think is right (of course, he's never wrong about who the bad guys are and chides others for taking the law into their own hands but....)

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

31. funny you mention Caruso, he disappeared for 10 years, paparazzi caught a picture of him recently

looking not so much like Horatio - time catches up with us all, not body shaming.

I avoided cop shows for the reasons you mentioned. When the so called good guys would threaten witnesses, I would cringe. for example, showing up at someone's door and implying it would be much worse for them, if they didn't let the cop inside. ugh.

[HAB911]

16. Seems I recently read of legislation somewhere criminalizing police lies

in interrogations?


Edit to add: Shouldn't these cops be bagging groceries for a living, they are certainly in the wrong business

[WhiskeyGrinder]

22. A rep in Washington (state) most recently submited a bill prohibiting lies in interrogations. But it's generally legal

for cops to lie to you during an interrogation.

[HAB911]

17. Cupp, 394 U.S. 731 (1969), a Supreme Court case that affirmed the legality of deceptive interrogation

House Bill 1062, sponsored by Florida Rep. Strom Peterson, D- Edmonds, aims to make defendants' statements inadmissible in court if police use deceptive tactics during interrogations to get those statements. Nine states have passed similar laws, but they only apply to juveniles.

[dalton99a]

19. Kick

[obamanut2012]

20. The Reed Technique needs to be outlawed in this country

Disgusting

[republianmushroom]

23. To protect and serve, Yup.

[Jerry Flattum]

24. what about the cops involved?

were they punished in anyway?

Article doesn't say

[marble falls]

29. I will bet they weren't. They will claim it was a good faith error caused by the lack of cooperation the suspect gave ..

... and the laws are written to get them off. Very few cops get charged for killing innocent, or complying suspects. "I thought I saw a gun and I was in fear for my life." is a basically a get out of jail free card.

[marble falls]

26. There are no Columbos on any Police force. No one gathers evidence to deduce a criminal, ...

... they grab the likely suspect and then gather evidence to convict him. Racial bias is used to identify a likely suspect, ignoring any evidence that doesn't help nail the suspect. This gets compounded with aggressive plea bargaining and threatening huge sentences for going to trial. I have no doubt a high percentage of those in prison are wrongly charged and over charged by the shaved headed, steroid charged former high school bullies wearing badges.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

32. there are some Columbos... ID channel type shows focuses on the cases that took meticulous police work

to solve. finding a leaf on a show which leads to the scene of the crime.... but yeah, most criminal cases don't get that type of attention.

Everyone is surprised the first time they get burglarized or car broken into and the cops dont even show up.

[Attilatheblond]

27. Not the first time I have read horror story about cops in Fontana n/t

[multigraincracker]

28. All civil lawsuits against police

should come out of their retirement fund.
I call it the “make cops tell the truth” law.
No more getting away with lying. Plus save us tax payers lots of money.

[erronis]

30. I wish there was a way for some of these DU articles to get better attention

This is a great/horrendous post, but I only found out about it when I wanted to post a similar and did a Search first (BTW, DU's search is not good - thanks to google.)

I look at Trending in the early morning, go about my chores during the day, and come back in the evening to see what has transpired.

Some of the best posts have fallen off my radar in the interim.

I also look at Greatest and will start a scan on Latest when I have nothing else to do.

Forums are Ok, but there are many posts that cross the Forum definitions (and require multiple postings?)

Maybe I just don't know the best way to find out what is really best.

But I love DU - and I've put some more in the tip jar.

[catrose]

33. The dog is okay. But the police turned her over to Animal Services and didn't tell him.

He tracked her down through her chip.