Make That a Double Cheese and Confession on the Side

Police are trading fast food for some fast confessions.

When a suspect is in custody, a Big Mac or a Whopper can be a powerful tool in getting the detainee to tell what he or she knows, detectives say.

“We should open an account at Burger King,” said homicide Det. Kent Hart. “Every time we walk in, they ask, ‘Are you taking confessions tonight?’ ”

The reason: Suspects get sick just thinking about jailhouse cuisine.

“The name of the game now is feed them and schmooze them,” said David Waksman, a Dade County prosecutor and former New York City police officer. “If you keep a guy in custody and he is hungry and you don’t feed him, you have deprived him of his rights, and that is illegal.”

Police, at the request of prosecutors, routinely write down everything they feed defendants. Sometimes they corroborate it with a photograph.

But giving suspects food for thought is making some defense lawyers angry.

“Offers of food, leniency, dismissal of charges and other similar types of inducements are what contribute to the very serious problem of false confessions,” said attorney William Matthewman. “False confessions have previously put innocent people in jail, even on death row.”

Police said turkey was key in getting a confession from a ranch hand suspected of murdering a 9-year-old South Dade boy.

Investigators said they made sure Juan Carlos Chavez regularly ate during more than 50 hours of questioning before he confessed to killing Jimmy Ryce.

“If I ate a turkey sandwich, he ate a turkey sandwich,” said Pat Diaz, lead investigator in the case.

In another case, police said they traded a hamburger and cheese steak for a windfall of confessions.

Detectives say Gerardo Plaza asked for a Whopper shortly after being arrested last year.

Hart and Detective Bassam Fadel bought Plaza a Whopper combo meal, which includes french fries and a soft drink. Between bites, Plaza allegedly confessed to a liquor store robbery and murder.

“Well, you got your Whopper’s worth,” Plaza reportedly said, purposely omitting the ending of the story so he could add, “I’m really hungry. Buy me a cheese steak.”

So off they drove to a sandwich shop.

“As soon as he gets his sub, he is eating it,” Hart recalled. “And he cops out to a couple of robberies in the city of Miami.”