Fontana police chief defends detectives accused of ‘psychological torture’ of innocent murder suspect

Five months after news broke that Fontana police detectives “psychologically tortured’ a man into falsely confessing to murder, Chief Michael Dorsey this week issued a statement on social media saying the department was not perfect in handling the interrogation but had ample reason to suspect foul play.

In a 17-hour interrogation in 2018, detectives legally used deception to get Thomas Perez Jr. to confess to killing his missing father, who was later found alive, preparing to board a plane at Los Angeles International Airport to visit his daughter.

“Were we perfect in how we handled the situation? Nobody ever is,” Dorsey said in a post Thursday, Nov. 7, on X, formerly known as Twitter. “We are sorry for what the son went through and we are grateful to learn that he and his father have reunited and their relationship has improved.”

The city paid nearly $900,000 to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit by Perez for the widely condemned interrogation session in which detectives said they recovered the body of his father and it now bore a toe tag in the morgue. They also brought in his dog, Margosha, and suggested it might have to be euthanized because of his actions. Dorsey denied allegations that police withheld Perez’s medication.

Signs of foul play

Perez had earlier called police to report his then-71-year-old father, Thomas Perez Sr., had not returned from an evening walk to pick up the mail with the family dog. The pet came back alone with no sign of the father.

Responding police became suspicious after noticing what they interpreted as signs of foul play. In his social media post — and as reported previously by the Southern California News Group — Dorsey noted the father’s cellphone, wallet and keys were still at the house, which was in disarray, particularly the father’s bedroom.

Dorsey said Perez told officers he had removed his father’s mattress and some clothing and cleaned the room with bleach. A neighbor described Perez as mentally unstable and described other activity that prompted police to obtain a search warrant.

As previously reported, a cadaver dog was brought in and sniffed out the odor of human remains in the bedroom, Dorsey said. Evidence of blood was also found at several spots in the house.

Perez went to the police station voluntarily and, at one point during questioning, was taken to a local golf course, where he stared at a pond and asked, “Don’t bodies float?” Dorsey said.

He noted that a federal judge overseeing the suit declared that a reasonable juror would have concluded there was enough evidence to believe a crime had been committed.

Interrogation tactics

In such situations, Dorsey said, 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.”

However, the level of deception used on Perez — who attempted to hang himself when detectives walked out of the interrogation room — was heavily criticized by those who teach police interviewing methods.

While lying by police is legal, the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) has begun phasing in new science-based training that does not allow deceptive and aggressive, psychologically manipulative techniques. Instead, it favors a more empathetic, humane approach. Training programs that teach deception, such as lying about DNA results or an accomplice’s cooperation, will not be certified by the state, according to POST.

The same judge who ruled that Fontana had reason to suspect wrongdoing also declared that “a  reasonable juror could conclude that the detectives inflicted unconstitutional psychological torture on Perez. … Their tactics indisputably led to Perez’s subjective confusion and disorientation, to the point he falsely confessed to killing his father, and tried to take his own life.”

Interest of ‘transparency’

Dorsey said he posted his comments in the interest of “transparency, accountability, fairness and maintaining community trust.”

“We often encounter dynamic situations that require quick decisions based on where the evidence leads us. Sometimes initial evidence points toward criminal activity when there’s none,” he wrote. “We constantly review our handling of situations and, when called for, adjust our policies or tactics as part of our ongoing effort to improve.”

Fontana police did not respond to a request for more detail on whether interrogation policies or tactics had been adjusted, and have never disclosed whether any of the detectives were disciplined.

‘Our detectives care deeply’

Dorsey wrote, “In the moment, we were urgently searching for a missing man and there was good reason to suspect some harm might have come to him. Sadly, situations like these can and often do end up as homicide investigations. We are so thankful this was not one of those.”

He ended his post by assuring the community that “our detectives care deeply about the community, doing the right thing and following the evidence to achieve justice for crime victims.”

Attorney Jerry Steering, who represented Perez in the lawsuit, found Dorsey’s post to be “unapologetic.”

“I think they should be ashamed of themselves. I think they have no moral compass,” Steering said. “The worst perpetrator of mental torture against Thomas Perez, Kyle Guthrie, was made officer of the year in 2019 and 2022.”