$900,000 Settlement After 'Psychological Torture' Spurs False Murder Confession

A California man received a $900,000 settlement from the city of Fontana after he was wrongly accused of killing his father and gave detectives a false confession amid “psychological torture,” his lawyer announced Thursday.

Thomas Perez Jr. was never formally arrested, but he was taken to the Fontana Police Department on Aug. 8, 2018, after he reported his father missing, according to a press release sent to HuffPost.

There, Perez endured an intense 17-hour interrogation by multiple detectives who used a series of traumatic techniques to get a confession, including threatening his beloved dog, the press release said.

But Perez’s father was alive and well the entire time, said his attorney, Jerry Steering.

The Orange County Register reported on the six-figure settlement for Perez this week, bringing national attention to the case.

Authorities began suspecting Perez after finding that his missing father had left behind his cellphone and wallet at their shared home. Officers also claimed that they discovered bloodstains inside the home and said that K-9 dogs detected a “deceased human remain odor,” according to a June 2023 court order of summary judgment, which was obtained by HuffPost.

Video evidence cited in the document revealed that officers “verbally berated” Perez, alleging that he’d killed his dad. They also insisted that he did not need access to his psychiatric medication, per the judgment.

Perez maintained that he did not recall killing his father, but authorities told him that the memory of killing his dad was too painful to remember, according to the press release sent to HuffPost.

At one point, authorities told Perez that his father had been found dead with stab marks on his body and that his remains had