The more that you hear about the Area 2 police torture accusations and how the city and various officials are responding to the allegations and lawsuits, the more lunatic the whole thing seems.
Previously secret documents show how the mayor's office and his corporation counsel were trying to devise a strategy to deal with the Jon Burge problem, Unit 5's Carol Marin reported. Burge is the now-infamous commander of Area 2, where almost 100 suspects claim police tortured them.
Two years ago, while four men sat on death row, fighting for their lives, internal documents show top city officials were concerned with a looming public relations problem posed by a Chicago police commander they had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, defending. [...] Now, documents have surfaced revealing that two years ago, the city actually considered suing Burge in a public relations offensive. [Flint Taylor, the lawyer for one of four former death row inmates suing the city] said he has seen the documents but declines to detail their contents: "How damaging are those documents? I think they are very damaging," he said.
Through court documents and sources, Unit 5 learned the contents of e-mails between the head of the city's law department, Mara Georges, and one of the attorneys on her staff. In an e-mail dated Jan. 10, 2002, Mara Georges wrote to her assistant, "Sheila O'Grady (Mayor Richard M. Daley's chief of staff) would like us to explore an action against Burge. Will you please think about it and give us your thoughts?"
Later, the assistant replied, "... it seems to me what Sheila O'Grady really wants is to distance ourselves politically/perceptionally from police Area 2 actions ... but query how we'll do in the court of public opinion after a long, public, expensive and embarrassing discovery process?"
Not half so badly as it would if they'd actually gone forward with a lawsuit to recover costs, I'd wager. For one thing, it's pretty certain that Burge would pull out all the stops -- what would he possibly have to lose? -- and detail what he thinks the people prosecuting the cases knew, and when they knew it, what he'd told them, etc. Then Hizonner Mayor Daley would have to explain why, as Cook County State's Attorney during Burge's reign of terror, he'd used evidence and prosecuted cases that he had to know were badly tainted. There are people on the bench now who have made rulings pertaining to this mess who would have to answer questions about their previous conduct. As long as the city, county and state continue to get people to settle cases, as long as this whole process drags out forever, nobody will have to be asked or have to answer these types of questions.
Once this case actually gets dragged into a courtroom somewhere, if it ever does -- once one of the people accusing Burge and his staff of torture decides that they want the truth to come out as much as they want to be done and to get on with their lives, all bets are off. (Once discovery advances far enough, it will be interesting to see how much of the city's defense of Burge really was dictated by the union contract of the time, and how much was dictated by the desire to control his lawyers and keep him quiet. After all, defending yourself against lawsuits of this type will bankrupt most people, even if you win; good legal defense costs.
Posted by iain at April 30, 2004 12:35 AM
