California’s Use of Jailhouse Stings Comes Under Scrutiny
by Michael Dean Thompson
California’s prosecutors have been increasingly making use of an investigatory tool known as a Perkins operation. Perkins operations are a legal loophole that circumvent Miranda requirements thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court decision in Illinois v. Perkins, 496 U.S. 292 (1990).
In the decision, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority (8-1) that “[A]n undercover law enforcement officer posing as a fellow inmate need not give Miranda warnings to an incarcerated suspect before asking questions that may elicit an incriminating response.” According to Kennedy, “When a suspect considers himself in the company of cellmates and not officers, the coercive atmosphere is lacking.”
Jason Zapata is one of a growing list of California suspects for whom Perkins operations were definitively coercive. Zapata underwent an interrogation by imposing guards who threatened him with a “calentada” (California prison slang for a beating or stabbing) for not coming clean. One of the guards facing him was over six feet tall and 300 pounds. The other was covered with tattoos from head to toe. Zapata was a 5’9,” 180 pound 24-year-old in jail for allegedly firing his gun in the air. But the cops were looking to pin an unsolved murder on him from the previous year. Even the cell into which he had been placed was oppressive, with its rusty toilet, sink, and wooden benches that appeared to have never been cleaned. The oppressiveness was reinforced by the trash-shewn floor. The broken phone on the wall added to the sense of isolation.
Michelle Luna Reynosa, a criminal defense attorney in San Diego called Perkins operations a psychological war and asked in an interview with CalMatters, “How is this not cruel and unusual punishment?,” speaking about the operations in general.
After the first hour of interrogation, Riverside County investigator James Dickey was getting nothing from Zapata, so he pulled Zapata into a police lineup. Dickey then told Zapata he had been identified as a shooter. He had not been, but it primed him and he asked for an attorney he never received. Investigators call the tactic “stimulating” a conversation. They will also use falsified DNA results and video surveillance to encourage confessions.
Psychology professor Iris Blandón-Gitlin studies Perkins operations and says that the false evidence ploy is a “very dangerous tactic.” It risks false confessions, erroneous information, and—in light of Kennedy’s opinion, especially—coercion. She adds, “It manipulates people’s reality. And so, they believe it. They don’t understand it, but they believe it and so they choose to confess—even falsely.”
For his part, as Zapata testified in trial, “There was no doubt in my mind that I was in immediate danger … And at that point I continued to lie and say what I said. I wouldn’t have said what I said if it wasn’t for the threats.”
There are potential incentives for these undercover investigators. Dickey and Riverside County Deputy District Attorney David Tehran delivered a presentation on Perkins operations at the Deputy District Attorney Association Homicide Symposium in Santa Rosa in 2024. They introduced themselves as “Perkins coordinators” for their respective agencies and claimed they had performed hundreds of operations for their respective agencies. Beyond speaking engagements, undercover agents may get as much as $3,000 in daily cash bonuses for their work extracting “confessions.”
Implicit racism also lurks in the Perkins toolset for California. The Riverside Public Defenders’ Office analyzed the data behind 145 Perkins operations in the county between 2015 and 2023. Black defendants were four times as likely to be targeted than white defendants. Similarly, Latino defendants were twice as likely as White defendants to be targeted.
Martín Flores is a gang expert who specializes in Perkins operations and has testified in over a hundred cases covering San Diego, Riverside County, Orange County and Santa Barbara. He told CalMatters the agent is “someone who, in perception, can make your life miserable or harmful in the county jail.” He added, “In my opinion, most of these Perkins operations, it’s about impressing the agent … And why does that matter? Because it’s survival. If you look weak and vulnerable, you’re going to become the prey.”
Source: CalMatters
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