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Chicago Cop In Notorious Torture Case Found Guilty Of Perjury
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June 29, 2010 10:24 a.m. EST
Topics: government, punishment, politics, law enforcement, police, safety of citizens, crime, law and justice, United States
Kris Alingod - AHN News Contributor
Chicago, IL, United States (AHN) - Former Chicago police commander Jon Burge, who is accused of abusing more than 200 suspects to obtain confessions, was found guilty Monday of obstruction of justice and perjury. Although Burge was not convicted of the tortures, prosecutors declared the verdict a "measure of justice" for the notorious officer's "horrific actions."
Burge was found guilty of all three counts of obstruction of justice and perjury. He faces as much as 20 years in prison for each count of obstruction, and five years for the charge of perjury.
The 62-year-old former cop had denied any wrongdoing during his trial. He testified that he had never tortured any suspect nor saw any other officers doing so.
During the four-week trial, witnesses testified that they had been tortured by Burge and officers who worked for him. They said the officers suffocated them with typewriter covers, burned them with radiators, administered electric shocks to their genitals, and threatened them with loaded weapons.
“For decades, Jon Burge’s horrific actions ran contrary to all that our justice system stands for," Thomas Perez, the Justice Department's assistant attorney general for civil rights, said in a statement. "The jury’s verdict allows those harmed by his actions to finally start the healing process."
Burge was indicted in 2008 for lying to prosecutors in his written responses to questionnaires, impeding court proceedings in a 2003 civil lawsuit.
The suit was filed by Madison Hobley, one of four former death row inmates who filed lawsuits accusing Burge of torturing them during investigations that led to convictions. The city council of Chicago voted unanimously in 2008 to pay $19.8 million to settle their claims.
The indictment against Burge did not say Hobley was physically abused. It accused Burge of being present, of having participated and of allowing the torture of suspects while he was lieutenant in Area Two headquarters from 1981 through 1986.
Burge also "corruptly obstructed, influenced and impeded an official proceeding by signing answers containing false statements in response to two [questionnaires] in the Hobley litigation," according to the indictment.
The settlement for Hobley and the three other inmates was approved two years after a $7 million report was released by special prosecutors saying law enforcement officials allowed Burge and his subordinates to torture criminal suspects over the past two decades. No officials were prosecuted based on the report because the statute of limitations had expired.
Burge was suspended by the Chicago Police Department in 1991 and fired two years later. The two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of perjury against him are the only criminal charges to result in the allegations of police brutality.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, however, said in a statement following Burge's conviction, “At long last, a measure of justice was delivered today... The verdict necessarily found that torture and abuse occurred in police districts in the city of Chicago in the 1980s. It’s disgraceful that torture happened and sad that it took so long to bring Burge to justice, and the only thing that would have been worse is if this measure of justice never happened."
An advocacy group, the Jail Jon Burge Committee, has pointed out that 20 of Burge's victims are still incarcerated and seeking new hearings.
One of Burge's victims, Mark Clements, also spoke of other inmates in an emotional statement following the verdict.
"I sat in a prison cell and I prayed for this day... I was 16 years old... What are we going to do about other people who are sitting in those prisons?" said Clements, who was released last August after 28 years in prison for a confession he says he signed after being beaten by detectives under Burge.
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