Psychological Torture

In August 2018, Thomas Perez Jr. called the police in Fontana, California, to report that his 71-year-old father, who had dementia, was missing. Police arrived, searched the house with his permission, and claimed to find “visible bloodstains.” A police dog allegedly “detected the presence of a corpse.” Despite Perez Jr.’s cooperation, the officers found his demeanor “suspicious” and brought him to the station for questioning.

Police questioned him for over 17 hours. Detectives falsely claimed they found his father’s corpse and bloodstains, denied him blood pressure and anxiety medication, and brought in his dog to falsely claim the animal would be euthanized because it witnessed the murder.

The interrogation began with hours of questioning while police obtained warrants to seize Perez Jr.’s electronic devices. After some time, they took him for a drive, claiming they were looking for his father. The ride was a pretense, just another way to continue questioning him. All it accomplished was a visible decline in Perez Jr.’s mental state.

Back at the station, Perez Jr. asked for his medication and requested to be taken to a hospital. The officers refused, saying, “We’re not going to go to the hospital, because that’s not going to help you.” From there, the pressure intensified.

By this point, Perez Jr. was in clear mental distress—rocking, pulling his hair, crying, shaking, and pleading for help. When he fell to the floor and hugged his dog, the officers laughed and told him he was stressing the animal out. Sixteen hours into the interrogation, the detectives told Perez Jr. they had found his father’s body in the morgue with stab wounds. It was a lie. But Perez Jr., mentally broken and physically exhausted, confessed. Under severe psychological distress and a complete mental breakdown, Perez falsely confessed to killing his father.

The detectives then received a call from Perez Jr.’s sister: Thomas Sr. was alive and at LAX, about to board a flight to visit her. They didn’t rush back to tell Perez Jr. the good news. Instead, they let him sit alone in the interrogation room for another hour. During this time, Perez Jr., hopeless and defeated, untied his shoes and attempted to hang himself.

The officers intervened—not to reassure him but to Mirandize him for the first time. They then sent him to a psychiatric hospital, leaving instructions with the staff that he was to have no contact with family members. On their way out, they dropped the dog at the pound as a stray.

In May 2023, a federal judge ruled the interrogation tactics were unconstitutional, stating:

“[Perez] 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.”

Perez filed a federal civil rights lawsuit accusing the Fontana Police Department of false imprisonment, due process violations, and what a judge described as unconstitutional “psychological torture.” The city agreed to a nearly $900,000 settlement to resolve the lawsuit, admitting no formal wrongdoing while maintaining that their tactics, though involving extreme ruses, did not break laws.

This would be illegal to do to a POW in time of war, a violation of the Geneva convention. The cops of Fontana think this is good police procedure.

When the police want to talk to you about anything, pretend that you are a POW in time of war:

• Shut the fuck up. Don’t answer questions.
• Ask if you are free to leave
• If you are not, the law requires that you identify yourself.
• After you do that, tell them you want a lawyer.
• Then shut the fuck up.
• The police aren’t your friends. They can lie to you. They can use your weaknesses against you.
• Did I mention that you shouldn’t answer questions, and should just shut the fuck up?