U.S. attorney, FBI probing allegations of police torture

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http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/577099,CST-NWS-burge27.article

BURGE CASE | 148 claim they were beaten in 1980s

September 27, 2007
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH AND LISA DONOVAN Staff Reporters

The U.S attorney and the FBI are investigating 20-year-old claims that Chicago Police under the command of former Lt. Jon Burge tortured confessions out of suspects and lied about it under oath.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald never actually said the name "Burge," but an attorney representing some of his alleged victims in a civil suit said those are the civil cases Fitzgerald referred to Wednesday when he said:

"The United States attorney's office is conducting an active criminal investigation into allegations of perjury, false statements and obstruction of justice by officers who served in the Chicago Police Department in the 1980s, in relation to currently pending federal civil lawsuits in which persons in Chicago Police Department custody during those years allege they were abused." Fitzgerald was speaking at an unrelated news conference.

At least 148 men, almost all of them African-American, told a special prosecutor that Burge and his officers at the old Area 2 police station beat them to extract confessions. Some of those men went to Death Row on false confessions until former Gov. George Ryan pardoned them. The city fired Burge, saying he was responsible for the torture of suspects. But a special prosecutor concluded it was too late to file charges against Burge or his officers.

The city also provided attorneys to defend Burge against civil suits that have cost the city $8 million in lawyers' fees so far. Burge lives in Florida and draws a city pension.