West Coast, Messed Coast™ —The Most Disturbing Police Story Ever Told

It's another gorgeous week along the West Coast, Messed Coast™, the last gasp before the rainy season gets underway in earnest, the pumpkin patch goes to seed, and Christmas decorations overtake the landscape.

This is just a nice little weather report before things get stormy in the first item, our weekly West Coast, Messed Coast™ update.

Notorious

Let's start with the good news from this notorious Fontana, California, story.

A Southern California man has been awarded $900,000 in a legal settlement. He has been reunited with his psychiatric medication, his father isn't dead, his suicide attempt failed, and his dog wasn't put down.

Now the bad news. Thomas Perez, Jr. was so convinced that police would euthanize his dog for being traumatized from having watched him stab his father to death, that he confessed to a murder to save it. Did I mention that there was no murder?

"Daddy's dead and it's your fault," one cop said to the man who had reported his father and housemate missing. That was the beginning of his tortured interrogation with Fontana police detectives, who, somewhere along the line, decided Perez had actually killed his dad, though there was no evidence.

His confession came during a 17-hour long "interview" in 2018 with Fontana police officers, who denied the realtor and contractor his psych meds, lied about his father to elicit a confession, and threatened to euthanize his beloved dog unless he coughed up what they wanted.

A judge called the detectives' treatment of him "unconstitutional psychological torture."

In footage of the interrogation above, Perez became so distraught that he began pulling his hair out, hitting himself, and ripping his shirt open. His lawsuit claimed the "suspect" asked for his psych meds and begged to be seen by a doctor. Police told him he didn't need medical help.

Detectives told the "murderer" that they found blood all over the home, which his dog had wandered into and spread throughout the house, and that a police dog sniffed out human remains in his home.

The Daily Telegraph reported that the cops told the mentally ill man other big whoppers:

After several hours, detectives falsely told Mr Perez that his father’s body had been located with stab wounds, the complaint says. At this point, Mr Perez falsely confessed and was left alone in the room, where he then tried to hang himself.
Jerry Steering, Mr Perez’s lawyer said: “This case shows that if the police are skilled enough, and they grill you hard enough, they can get anybody to confess to anything.”

Cops can lie but you can't in an interrogation. In this case, Perez did lie. He didn't do it.

Perez and his attorney settled for the $900 thousand, fearing that due to qualified immunity, a jury wouldn't come back with an award that large.

And when did cops find out dad was alive? During Perez's 72-hour involuntary psychiatric hold. But police didn't tell the "suspect" the good news, and during that time, he believed both his dad and his dog were dead. That's also when the cops finally read Perez his rights.

Oh, and where was dad? He was off seeing a lady friend for a couple of days.

I respect and admire police officers. I know their jobs are hard and that they often confront dirtbag rapists and murderers. Seldom does this kind of interrogation happen. But it did.

Though news of the settlement trickled out in September, Fontana police still have not commented.

This item may not return

Seattle-based luxury department store Nordstrom used to be renowned for taking back anything—even stuff they never sold in the first place. But now, what with all the defund the police, crack, meth, and fentanyl dens on the downtown city streets, and woke state and local prosecutors who don't want to hurt criminals' feelings by putting them in jail, Nordstrom is the one with its hand out. It would like all the stolen stuff back, please.

The Seattle Business (not an intentional oxymoron) Journal reports that the department store's current CEO, Erik Nordstrom, said the county's violent, wanton, senseless crime is so bad that though the county's stores represent only 3% of its sales, they represent 10% of its losses.

Nordstrom's is part of a coalition of retailers and government coming up with ideas to stop organized retail theft. I guess putting these racketeers in jail is too simple a solution.

"We're born and raised here and huge homers when it comes to anything local," Nordstrom told the gathering. "Unfortunately, King County is our worst area for this. It's a big financial headwind."

I don't know who needs to hear this, but that is a cry for help.

Garvey bats cleanup

We've been a little quiet recently about the Steve Garvey and Adam Schiff Senate race in California. Shame on me. Republican Garvey looked like a statesman in his recent debate against the lying congressman.