L.A. Detectives Must Face Civil Suit Over Teen’s Confession

Los Angeles police detectives should have stopped their interrogation of a 13-year-old suspect in a gang-related murder when he requested a lawyer and the tactics one used to get a confession from him may have been unconstitutionally coercive, the Ninth Circuit said.

Several civil rights claims may therefore proceed, the appeals court, said however a due process count can’t because the tactics didn’t shock the conscience.

Although he confessed during a two-hour interrogation and was convicted for killing Alex Castaneda in 2012, Art Tobias was later found to be not involved in the murder, the opinion by Judge Kim McLane ...