‘Psychologically tortured’: California city pays man nearly $1m after 17-hour police interrogation

🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles: ::: spoiler Click here to see the summary A California city has agreed to pay $900,000 to a man who was subjected to a 17-hour police interrogation in which officers pressured him to falsely confess to murdering his father, who was alive.

A judge said the questioning appeared to be “unconstitutional psychological torture”, and the city agreed to settle Perez’s lawsuit for $898,000, his lawyer announced this week.

The extraordinary case of a coerced false confession has sparked widespread outrage, with footage showing Perez in extreme emotional and physical distress, including as officers brought his dog in and said the animal would need to be put down due to “depression” from witnessing a murder that had not actually occurred.

Officer Joanna Piña, who took the call, reported Perez Jr’s demeanor as “suspicious”, claiming he seemed “distracted and unconcerned with his father’s disappearance”.

Perez Jr sat for hours of initial questioning while officers obtained additional search warrants allowing them to access devices they had seized.

During the interrogation, Perez Jr started pulling out his hair, hitting himself and tearing off his shirt, nearly falling to the floor, at which point the officers laughed at him and told him he was stressing his dog, the judge summarized.

Saved 82% of original text. :::

6 comments

Officers threatened to kill the dog of Thomas Perez Jr as they pressured him to falsely confess to killing his father, who was alive
What the fuck. Average pig moment.
- They fucking drove him to try and hang himself. Holy fuck are cops dirty.
One of those cases that really should unite literally everyone behind police reform, but will sadly be lost among the noise of all the other horrible shit going on.
Holy fucking shit
🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles: ::: spoiler Click here to see the summary A California city has agreed to pay $900,000 to a man who was subjected to a 17-hour police interrogation in which officers pressured him to falsely confess to murdering his father, who was alive.
A judge said the questioning appeared to be “unconstitutional psychological torture”, and the city agreed to settle Perez’s lawsuit for $898,000, his lawyer announced this week.
The extraordinary case of a coerced false confession has sparked widespread outrage, with footage showing Perez in extreme emotional and physical distress, including as officers brought his dog in and said the animal would need to be put down due to “depression” from witnessing a murder that had not actually occurred.
Officer Joanna Piña, who took the call, reported Perez Jr’s demeanor as “suspicious”, claiming he seemed “distracted and unconcerned with his father’s disappearance”.
Perez Jr sat for hours of initial questioning while officers obtained additional search warrants allowing them to access devices they had seized.
During the interrogation, Perez Jr started pulling out his hair, hitting himself and tearing off his shirt, nearly falling to the floor, at which point the officers laughed at him and told him he was stressing his dog, the judge summarized.
Saved 82% of original text. :::
These are the kinds of cops that should be summarily fired on the spot and not ever given a badge again. Such sickening behavior.