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Prosecutors Expand Chicago Police Torture Investigation in Illinois

In Illinois, prosecutors are expanding their probe into claims that Chicago police officers used "torture" tactics, including beatings, Russian roulette, and electric shock, on criminal suspects in order to obtain confessions. On Monday, ex-Chicago police commander Jon Burge pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he lied about torture while he was in charge of the Chicago police department?s Area 2 violent crimes division on the South Side.

Burge was arrested last week on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury. He also is accused of lying under of oath when he testified in an Illinois civil rights lawsuit that accused him and the Chicago cops who worked for him of using torture to get suspects to confess.

The former Chicago police chief was fired from the police department in 1993. Burge?s criminal trial is scheduled for May 11, 2009. He is free on $250,000 bond.

According to the Chicago-Sun Times, one woman who was at the courthouse on Monday to watch Burge?s arraignment says that the ex-Chicago police chief forced her 16-year-old brother to confess to a crime by hanging him upside down outside a window.

In 2006, two special prosecutors determined that Chicago police officers abused a number of black suspects at Area 2 during the 70?s and 80?s in an effort to get them to confess. The prosecutors, however, also determined that the statute of limitations had passed for them to file criminal charges against Burge or anyone else who was allegedly involved. Prosecutors say that charging Burge with lying about the alleged torture during the civil rights lawsuit is better than not charging him at all.

In another civil rights lawsuit, former Death Row prisoner Darrel Cannon is suing Burge and a number of detectives. Cannon is accusing the police officers of pretending to load a gun before putting it in his mouth and pulling the trigger, as well as shocking him with an electric cattle prod, to get him to confess to a murder he did not commit. The detectives named in Cannon?s lawsuit have denied his allegations.

Recently, the city of Chicago agreed to pay $20 million to settle lawsuits with four ex-inmates who claim that police tortured them.

Police Brutality
Any act of police brutality violates Section 1983 of the Federal Civil Rights Act. If you have been a victim of police brutality in Chicago or any other city in Illinois, you may be able to file an Illinois personal injury lawsuit to recover financial compensation.

Ex-Chicago cop Burge arrested in torture cases, Chicago Sun-Times, October 28, 2008

Jon Burge Pleads Not Guilty, MyFoxChicago.com, October 27, 2008

Related Web Resources

Truth in Justice

Police Brutality in the US, HRW.org

Full post as published by Chicago Injury Attorney Blog on October 28, 2008 (boomark / email).