A man named Tom Perez was sent to the psychiatric unit of a hospital after allegedly being forced to falsely admit to killing his 71-year-old father, who had gone missing in Fontana, California in Aug 2018.
A year later, in 2019, he mustered the courage to file a complaint against the police, which eventually led to a settlement of nearly $900,000 (S$1.2 million) in May 2024, five years after the incident.
Despite this, the Fontana Police Department remained firm that they did not cross the line during the interrogation, releasing a statement on 7 Nov saying they want people to “have the facts” about the incident.
On 7 Aug 2018, Mr Perez’s father had supposedly gone to check the mailbox down the street with their dog and did not return.
Believing that his father was just visiting a friend nearby, Mr Perez initially did not think much about his father’s disappearance and only called the police the following afternoon, when his father had still not returned home.
A quick visit to his home where they saw ongoing construction work and possessions in a messy heap led officers to suspect that there was something more sinister behind the incident.
Mr Perez agreed to go to the police station to help locate his dad, but by this time, his father had been gone for 24 hours and the police officers began to suggest that Mr Perez might have killed his father.
Besides suggesting different ways that Mr Perez might have hurt his father, they drove him around town for hours to get him to confess where he had left his father’s body.
They also had Mr Perez’s friend convince him to admit to the crime, telling his friend they found an “overwhelming” amount of evidence when apparently, evidence was “circumstantial”.
Finally, they brought in the family dog and told Mr Perez that the dog could be put down due to trauma after witnessing his father’s supposed “murder”.
Source: San Bernardino Sun
Distressed, Mr Perez began to break down and tried to pull his hair out and rip his shirt open.
Mr Perez was admitted to a psychiatric unit for a 72-hour observation, while the dog was taken to a shelter in a neighbouring county as a “stray”.
Amidst all these, at least one of the detectives had been informed by Mr Perez’s sister that their father was at Los Angeles International Airport, on the way to visit her in Oakland, California.
The elder Thomas Perez was thereafter stopped at the airport gate and detained by Fontana officers.
He was put in the same interrogation room where his son previously had been and was told their house was being searched due to a suspected murder. They did not reveal that his son had been accused of killing him.
The father attempted to visit his son at the hospital but was not allowed for several days, with his calls similarly being blocked.
It was only when a nurse allowed the two to have a phone call that Mr Perez learned that his father was alive.
He was released from the hospital a week after the incident occurred.
The family dog was also returned after she was found to be microchipped, though she needed surgery for a torn ligament.
Meanwhile, the officers still believed there was a victim of murder, citing blood on a door at the Perezes’ home, but CNN revealed photos suggesting that the blood had not been there initially.
One of the officers involved in the case was named Employee of the Year months after the incident, while three were promoted in the years to follow, with one of them being the current chief of police.
Image adapted from CNN
A federal judge allowed Mr Perez’s case to move forward after a review of the interrogation footage, and in May 2024, the City of Fontana ended up settling with Mr Perez, paying him almost $900,000.
The judge wrote:
Perez’s mental state, among other factors, made him a vulnerable individual. He was sleep deprived, mentally ill, and, significantly, undergoing symptoms of withdrawal from his psychiatric medications. He was berated, worn down, and pressured into a false confession after 17 hours of questioning. (The officers) did this with full awareness of his compromised mental and physical state and need for his medications.
Despite this, Fontana Police Chief Michael Dorsey defended the police department in a statement on 7 Nov, writing: “Were we perfect in how we handled the situation? Nobody ever is.”
He added that it was “perfectly legal” to use different tactics, including schemes, to elicit information from people suspected of crime in order to come to a resolution.
However, many people expressed their distrust of the police department in their comments on the post.
Source: @FontanaPD on X
Source: City of Fontana Police Department on Facebook
Also read: Man in Japan dies after medics fail to transport him to hospital, mistaking him for dead
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Featured image adapted from San Bernardino Sun, San Bernardino Sun,
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