They finally get brute Burge for something

Decades after torture allegations were first leveled against former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge's "Midnight Crew," a federal jury convicted him Monday on all three counts of obstruction of justice and perjury for lying about the torture in a civil lawsuit.

Burge showed no reaction as the verdict was read, but moments after jurors strode from the courtroom for the last time, he talked and laughed with his lawyers.

Under federal criminal statutes, Burge faces up to 45 years in prison, but in reality his punishment will be far less severe. His attorneys said, in fact, that they will seek probation for Burge, who is 62 and said to have prostate cancer.

For years it looked as if Burge would escape criminal charges altogether. He was fired from the Police Department in 1993 for torturing a cop killer, but a four-year investigation by special Cook County prosecutors concluded in 2006 that the statute of limitations on the claims of abuse had long passed. It wasn't until 2008 that federal prosecutors figured out a clever way to indict him — not for the tortures themselves, but lying about them.

After Monday's verdict, jurors said five ex-cons who alleged torture by Burge or detectives under him — the so-called Midnight Crew — were taken with a grain of salt because of their lengthy criminal records, but that a cop who worked for Burge was a key witness for the prosecution even though he backtracked from his grand-jury testimony. And some jurors took note of the fact that Burge had named his boat "Vigilante," a point driven home by the prosecution during its cross-examination of Burge on the witness stand. Burge claimed he picked the name off a computer-generated list because it was unique.

But jurors acknowledged the deliberations were complicated by the fact that a cop was on trial in this upside-down case. Though Burge wasn't directly charged with torture, prosecutors had to prove those allegations to substantiate the charges of obstruction of justice and perjury.

The torture scandal sent innocent men to prison, tarnished the reputations of the Police Department and the Cook County state's attorney's office and led to blanket commutations that emptied the state's death row as well as repeated lawsuits that drained millions in taxpayer dollars from the city.

"This is a really significant moment in this ongoing drama," said attorney Locke Bowman, who has represented a number of Burge's alleged victims in their efforts to gain new trials over allegations that their confessions were coerced. "We now have confirmation of what has been well-known for decades," he said.

"I hope the U.S. government will take swift action to charge the other detectives … who were implicated in so many of these cases," he said

Prosecutors have signaled that they are investigating a number of detectives who worked for Burge. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has previously warned that police detectives relying on a code of silence to protect them may be "hanging on air," and he reaffirmed Monday that prosecutors are continuing their probe.

"I'm not going to comment on any other persons in this case at this time," he said. "The investigation is moving forward."

Fitzgerald, who was in the courtroom for the verdict, said the outcome provided at least a measure of justice for Burge's victims. "It's sad that it took so long, but it would be horrible if it was never addressed," he told reporters.

In closing arguments to jurors last week, Burge's lawyers questioned how the testimony of convicted murderers, gang members and armed robbers could be believed over the word of a Chicago cop.

But the accounts of victims Anthony Holmes, Melvin Jones, Gregory Banks, Shadeed Mu'min and Andrew Wilson were bolstered by testimony from doctors, nurses, attorneys and former Area 2 detective Michael McDermott, who was forced to testify against his old boss in exchange for immunity.

Still, the testimony of the victims was shocking. One said Burge smothered him with a bag and shocked him with an electrical device in 1973. Another said that nine years later Burge shocked him in the genitals. Another said Burge played Russian roulette with a .44-caliber gun and smothered him with a plastic bag. All said they feared for their lives and confessed to murders and other crimes.

Testifying in his own defense, Burge offered denial after denial of torture. The defense alleged that the accusers had cooked up the abuse stories after meeting in jail as a way to exact revenge, help them beat their criminal cases and make money through lawsuits.

Outside the courthouse, a small crowd of activists marched in a loose circle, partly in celebration, partly to demand that Mayor Richard M. Daley — who was the state's attorney when much of the abuse occurred — be held accountable for doing nothing to stop Burge.

Original report here



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