A California city has agreed to pay $900,000 to a man who was subjected to a 17-hour police interrogation in which officers pressured him to falsely confess to murdering his father, who was alive.
During the 2018 interrogation of Thomas Perez Jr by police in Fontana, a city east of Los Angeles, officers suggested they would have Perez’s dog euthanized as a result of his actions, according to a complaint and footage of the encounter. A judge said the questioning appeared to be “unconstitutional psychological torture”, and the city agreed to settle Perez’s lawsuit for $898,000, his lawyer announced this week.
The extraordinary case of a coerced false confession has sparked widespread outrage, with footage showing Perez in extreme emotional and physical distress, including as officers brought his dog in and said the animal would need to be put down due to “depression” from witnessing a murder that had not actually occurred.
There was a Breaking Bad ( or maybe Better Call Saul?) Episode where a character was hauled in for questioning and the only reply he would give was “Lawyer.” That’s exactly what someone should do in that situation.
No. Be explicit. “I invoke my right to remain silent, and I invoke my right to an attorney.” The Supreme Court has held that you must “unambiguously request counsel”. If you say “give me a lawyer, dog”, the state of Louisiana will decline to give you a “lawyer dog”.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/10/suspect-asks-for-a-lawyer-dawg-judge-says-he-asked-for-a-lawyer-dog.html
Don’t be rude or annoying, but yeah. Pretty much.
Probably won’t get into trouble if you tell a cop at a traffic stop that you’re going home from work, unless you’re drunk off your socks, but generally it’s best to politely not answer.
You need to actively and clearly say you are invoking your fifth amendment privileges to not answer questions and that you want a lawyer.
Do not use slang, there are dirty judges out there that will rule against you if you say “I want my lawyer dog”
Me know what it means, but the legal system will deliberately trip you, that dog thing is an actual example