A California city has agreed to pay nearly $900,000 to a man who was subjected to a 17-hour police interrogation that forced him into falsely confessing to the murder of his father, who was still alive.
Thomas Perez Jr, then homeless, was questioned by officers from Fontana police department in August 2018. During the interrogation, officers threatened to have his dog euthanised and claimed the animal was ‘depressed’ from witnessing a killing that had never occurred, according to court documents and footage of the encounter.
A federal judge described the questioning as ‘unconstitutional psychological torture’. The city has now settled Perez’s lawsuit for $898,000, his lawyer announced this week.
The incident began when Perez reported his father missing. Officers took him to the station, where they berated him for hours, insisting he had killed his father despite no evidence. At one point, they brought in his dog and told him the animal would need to be put down due to the trauma of watching a murder.
Perez, who was suffering from sleep deprivation and withdrawal from his psychiatric medication, eventually confessed falsely. After being left alone, he attempted to hang himself. His father was later found alive.
