Nearly six years after police pushed him to confess to a murder that never happened, Thomas Perez Jr. received a $898,000 settlement from the city of Fontana.
On August 8, 2018, Perez called the Fontana Police Department to report his father had been missing for 17 hours.
By the end of the lengthy investigation, Perez confessed to killing his father – before learning that his father had been found alive and well.
According to reports by CNN, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and more – the officers’ tactics were coercive and, at one point, led Perez to attempt to take his own life while he was still in the interrogation room.
On Thursday, Nov. 7, the Fontana Police Department issued a statement offering the department’s side of the story.
“This was a missing person’s case where officers and detectives followed unfolding evidence that pointed toward possible foul play,” says the statement signed by chief Mike Dorsey. “In the settlement agreement, the judge on the case noted that a reasonable juror would agree that officers had sufficient evidence to suspect a crime had been committed.”
Dorsey’s statement narrates that the case began with Perez’s call, saying his father hadn’t returned from getting the mail with his dog the night before. According to the report, the dog returned without Perez’s father – whose wallet, cell phone and keys were still in the house.
“We noticed the house – and particularly the father’s bedroom – was in disarray,” writes Dorsey. “The son explained that he had removed his father’s mattress and some clothing and had cleaned the house with bleach.”
That was when officers reportedly became suspicious of Perez and asked him to come to the police department for an interview. The department says Perez agreed and arrived voluntarily.
The LA Times reports it was during this interview that officers “alleged Perez had murdered his father and, when Perez denied the accusation, officers tried to convince him that he had forgotten the crime, according to a federal lawsuit, court records and video of the interrogation.”
CNN’s story alleges that amongst the accusations and tactics, officers even brought in the family dog and said she was suffering because she had witnessed the murder. The LA Times said officers told Perez the dog had walked through blood and would be sent away to be euthanized.
The Fontana Police Department did not confirm or comment on the involvement of Perez’s dog, but in a report by The Sun, a photo shows Perez cradling his dog on the floor of an interrogation room that reportedly was screen-grabbed from police video.
“In situations like these, it is acceptable and perfectly legal to use different tactics and techniques, such as ruses, to elicit information from people suspected of potential criminal activity,” says the police statement. “Were we perfect in how we handled the situation? Nobody ever is.”
Dorsey says that around the same time that Perez went to the station for questioning, officers spoke with a neighbor who described Perez as “mentally unstable” and said that he didn’t have patience with his father.
This neighbor also purportedly told officers that the morning the father went missing, someone else was seen driving his truck erratically, and it seemed there was something in the bed of the truck which was then parked in the garage, away from its usual parking spot on the street.
The department says officers used these details in a presentation of evidence to a judge and soon acquired a search warrant.
“During the search, we found blood on the staircase, carpet near the stairs, a couch, in the garage and in a bathtub and on the floor of an upstairs bathroom, adjacent to the father’s bedroom,” says the department.
Throughout the rest of the investigation, officers say they found more evidence of foul play and heard questionable comments from Perez.
For example, Dorsey said Perez asked officers to drive him around a golf course, during which, while they were near a pond, Perez allegedly asked the officers “Don’t bodies float?”
Toward the conclusion of Dorsey’s statement, he writes, “Sadly, situations like these can and often do end up as homicide investigations. We are so thankful this was not one of those.”
After the nearly $900,000 settlement was reached in the spring of 2024, CNN reports it reached out to Perez and his father who say they both continued to feel the effects of this incident for years and worked to help each other through it.
