Jon Burge: Police Board Rules He Can Keep Pension.

[Stuart G]

Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/27/jon-burge-pension-police-_n_814894.html

The Chicago police commander convicted of concealing torture of suspects under his watch will continue receiving over $3,000 a month in pension payouts after a Police Board vote Thursday morning.

Jon Burge is believed to have overseen the torture of dozens if not hundreds of suspects during his time at Area 2 Police Headquarters. Several witnesses testified that Burge personally shackled, electrocuted, suffocated and beat them to coerce confessions.

He was arrested in 2008, but not for torture -- the statute of limitations had inexplicably run out on those crimes, though a 2006 investigation showed that dozens of men had made credible claims of abuse. Instead, prosecutors charged him with lying under oath in a 2003 civil suit when he claimed to have no knowledge of such practices taking place.

Burge was found guilty after his trial this summer, and sentenced last week to four and a half years in prison.

But that wasn't enough to have the Police Board revoke his pension.

additonal link Comments from the Police Pension Board..Tribune Story
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-burge-pension-0128-20110127,0,250512.story

Burge, 63, was never charged with torturing suspects while a cop. But in June, long after he was forced to leave the department, he was found guilty of lying about his knowledge of police torture.

That was the difference for pension board President Kenneth Hauser, who said Burge's perjury conviction "had nothing to do with things he did when he was on the job."

One board member even questioned Burge's conviction. "Juries don't always get it right," said police Sgt. Michael Lazzaro.

Michael Conway, a former executive at Aon, was joined by three city officials in voting to revoke Burge's pension. Conway said he thought the link between the perjury conviction and Burge's police work was clear.

"Others deliberated and came to a different conclusion," Conway said. "I can't speak for them, but that was pretty straightforward, from my point of view."

The board's decision outraged many of Burge's alleged victims and their supporters. But several legal experts said they were not surprised by the split decision.

"'Relating to,' 'arising out of,' 'in connection with' — those are very subjective terms," said Chicago attorney Scott Uhler, whose firm represents several Chicago-area pension boards. "It isn't a law that is necessarily easy to apply, and it often comes down to who is doing the interpreting."