Thirty-six hours later, Perez was on a psychiatric hold in a hospital, having been pressured into confessing he killed his dad and trying to take his own life. His father was alive and there had been no murder. No one told Perez. Instead, police continued investigating him, looking for a victim who did not exist. That was six years ago, in August Nor is there any indication there was an internal investigation into why detective after detective, supervisor after supervisor, allowed the questioning of Perez to continue for hour after hour.
Since then, many of the police officers involved have been promoted. And Perez feels there has still been no explanation for why he was treated so badly. CNN became aware of this story when the settlement was publicized.
We obtained some interrogation videos and spent weeks poring through records and interviews, many of which have not been made public because of a protective order, to try to ascertain what led to what one expert in policing called "one of the most disturbing things I've seen.
Perez and the city of Fontana reached their settlement this spring after he filed a civil suit accusing the police of false imprisonment and due process violations, among other offenses. The suburban city, about an hour's drive east of Los Angeles, admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement and "vigorously denies" that any state or federal laws were broken. The police officers who interrogated the younger man for 17 hours have not responded to CNN's requests for comment.
The Perez father and son live together in a three-bedroom, cream-colored house with a tile roof in a cul-de-sac of homes built around a golf course.
