SAN DIEGO — An expert in false confessions testified Friday that police interrogations of a teen suspect in Stephanie Crowe's murder were among the most coercive he has ever seen.

"It's surprising to me, even given all the bad interrogations I've studied, to see interrogations this egregious ... this sloppy," said Richard Leo, a criminology professor at the University of California at Irvine, about 1998 interviews of Joshua Treadway.

Joshua Treadway

Leo, who said he had reviewed hundreds of police interviews and trained officers in proper techniques, said the questioning by officers of the Escondido police department violated even the most fundamental standards.

"[Treadway] is repeatedly denied very basic requests to go to sleep, to talk to his mother, to get some caffeine" and to use the bathroom, Leo said.

The testimony came at a preliminary hearing for Richard Tuite, the man now accused of fatally stabbing 12-year-old Stephanie to death. Treadway, then 15, and the victim's brother, Michael Crowe, 14, confessed to the crime and were charged with murder along with a third friend early in the investigation. They later recanted and prosecutors dropped charges after DNA tests showed Stephanie's blood on the shirt of Tuite, a 33-year-old schizophrenic drifter.

Prosecutors called Leo to the stand to counter claims by Tuite's lawyers that the teenagers are the real killers and the confessions the best evidence.

Leo bolstered testimony earlier this week from Treadway, who said detectives separated him from his parents, lied to him about evidence in the case and convinced him he would be treated lightly if he admitted involvement but sent to an adult prison filled with sexual predators if he did not.

Richard Tuite

Leo said the horror stories of prison rape were part of a "threat-promise dynamic" that broke Treadway's will.

"He's scared, he hyperventilates at times, he's petrified," said Leo.

Leo is a key expert in a suit brought against local law enforcement by the teenagers and their families and, on cross-examination, defense lawyer Brad Patton suggested Leo's opinion was shaped by the teenagers' civil lawyers and the $25,000 they are expected to pay him.

"You have taken [the plaintiff's lawyer's] position and adopted it as true," Patton charged.

Leo acknowledged basing parts of his findings on discussions with those lawyers and admitted there was no objective record of prison rape threats. Treadway testified they occurred outside the interrogation room and were not videotaped like the rest of the interview.

The preliminary hearing, to determine whether there is enough evidence to try Tuite, will continue Monday.