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Nearly six years after police coerced him into confessing to an unlikely murder, Thomas Perez Jr. received an $898,000 settlement from the city of Fontana.
On August 8, 2018, Perez called the Fontana Police Department to report that her father had been missing for 17 hours.
By the end of a long investigation, Perez confessed to killing his father before learning that he was found alive.
CNN, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and other reports said the officers’ tactics were so coercive that at one point Perez attempted suicide while in the interrogation room.
On Thursday, Nov. 7, the Fontana Police Department released a statement stating their position.
“This is a missing persons case, and officers and detectives followed evidence of possible foul play,” the statement, signed by Chief Mike Dorsey, said. “In the settlement agreement, the judge in this case stated that a reasonable jury would agree that the officers had sufficient evidence to suspect that a crime had been committed.”
Dorsey’s statement said the incident began with a phone call from Perez stating that her father had picked up the mail the night before with the dog and had not returned. The dog returned without Perez’s father, but his wallet, cell phone and keys were still in the house, the report said.
“We noticed that the house was in disarray, especially the father’s bedroom,” Dorsey wrote. “The son explained that he removed his father’s mattress and clothes and cleaned the house with bleach.”
That’s when police reportedly became suspicious of Perez and asked him to come to the police station for questioning. Perez agreed and arrived voluntarily, the department said.
The Los Angeles Times reported that, according to the federal lawsuit, court records, and video of the incident, the officers “claimed that Mr. Perez had killed his father, and when Mr. Perez denied the accusations, the officers believed that Mr. Perez committed the crime.” I tried to convince him that I had forgotten,” he said during this interview. Interrogation. ”
Among the accusations and tactics, the officers even brought in their dogs and said they were suffering because they had witnessed a murder, according to a CNN article. According to the LA Times, the officer told Perez that the dog was bleeding and walking and would be sent to be euthanized.
Fontana police have not confirmed or commented on the involvement of Perez’s dog, but the Sun reported that a photo of Perez cradling the dog on the interrogation room floor was reportedly screenshotted from a police video. are.
Fontana police interrogated Thomas Perez Jr. for 17 hours in August 2018 before he falsely confessed to killing his father, who was not dead. This photo was provided by Perez’s attorney. (Fontana Police Department, via LA Times)
“In these circumstances, it is permissible and completely legal to use various tactics and techniques, such as subterfuge, to extract information from potential criminals,” the police statement said. There is. “Was the way we handled the situation perfect? No one is.”
Dorsey said that around the same time that Perez went to the police station for questioning, police told a neighbor who described Perez as “mentally unstable” and had no patience for his father. He said he talked to people.
The neighbor also said that on the morning her father went missing, someone else was seen driving the truck erratically, and that there appeared to be something in the bed of the truck, and that the truck was parked in its usual parking lot. He is said to have told officers that the car was parked in a garage away from the lot. street.
The department said officers used those details in presenting evidence to a judge and quickly obtained a search warrant.
“During the search, blood stains were discovered on the stairs, the carpet near the stairs, the couch, the garage, the bathtub, and the floor of the second floor bathroom adjacent to the father’s bedroom,” the department said.
Throughout the remainder of the investigation, officers said they found further evidence of foul play and heard suspicious comments from Perez.
For example, Dorsey said Perez asked the officers to drive him around a golf course, and when they were near a pond, Perez asked the officers, “Do bodies float?” Ru.
Near the conclusion of Dorsey’s statement, he wrote: I’m so thankful this wasn’t like that. ”
After a nearly $900,000 settlement was reached in the spring of 2024, CNN reported that it reached out to Perez and her father, who both continue to feel the effects of the incident for years and are looking to each other to move on from the incident. It is said that they tried to help each other.
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