Pushing for a (false) confession

Courtesy of the Detroit Free Press, here's a disturbing story and video record of an extraordinarily poorly handled interrogation of a boy with Asperger's Syndrome during which a police officer tried to bully and manipulate the 13-year-old into confessing that his family has a history of sexual abuse.

Legal experts say the video record of the boy's interrogation reveals numerous violations of rules that are supposed to protect minors who may have witnessed sexual abuse and to minimize false allegations of abuse. One called Brousseau's tactics, which included deception, threats and repeated insinuations that the boy was lying, "reprehensible." A therapist who treated the boy for Asperger's Syndrome, a mild form of autism, said the detective may have misinterpreted symptoms of the boy's condition as evidence of evasion or guilt.

The family has now been reunited, but the boy says the detective's allegations have damaged his relationship with his father.

Truly appalling.