Chicago Police officers under former Cmdr. Jon Burge were guilty of torturing confessions out of suspects in the ’70s and ’80s, but the statute of limitations bars their prosecution, a report by a special prosecutor “regrettably” concluded Wednesday. “It is our judgment that the evidence in those cases would be sufficient to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” the report said, but added that “regrettably” there is no way to “avoid the effect of the statute of limitations.”
Not all the accused officers were guilty of abuse but Burge was, said the report by the special prosecutor, retired Appellate Justice Edward J. Egan and his deputy, Robert D. Boyle. “It necessarily follows that a number of officers serving under his command recognized that if their commander could abuse persons with impunity, so could they,” said the report, which concluded a four-year, $7 million investigation. It named officers Anthony Maslanka, Michael McDermott, James Lotito and Ronald Boffo as those it judged guilty of abuse.
The report also found that then-Police Supt. Richard Brezeczek was guilty of dereliction of duty in investigating one torture claim. “Despite the fact that Brezeczek believed that officers in the Violent Crimes Unit of Detective Area 2 had tortured Andrew Wilson,” the report said, “he kept that belief to himself for over 20 years.” Wilson was convicted of murdering two police officers in 1982 and he claimed Burge and two detectives beat and tortured him with electric shocks. Wilson’s case was included in the special prosecutors’ report.
Attorneys for Wilson and the other men who say they were tortured — Alfonzo Pinex and Phillip Adkins — said before the report’s release that, while lacking indictments, it would offer a road map for the U.S. attorney’s office to pursue federal charges against former police and prosecutors....One of the key issues that attorneys involved in the case have been waiting to see addressed is how prominently Mayor Richard M. Daley figures in the report. Daley was the Cook County state’s attorney when some of the suspects were allegedly abused. Attorneys for some of the suspects have been critical of Daley, with Flint Taylor, an attorney for The People’s Law Office saying that Daley was aware of the torture and has done nothing about it. Daley’s office has countered that they want the report released, and have, according to the city’s law department, filed a motion for the release of the report.
I guess at this point in time, the report is so recently released that the reporters haven't had a chance to determine exactly how Daley was mentioned or involved. Otherwise, not mentioning him in the article in any more detail seems decidedly odd.
It will be interesting to see what happens now, and how things proceed. If this gets handed to Fitzgerald for prosecution by the government, I would think that you'd see a lot of movement; he has a reputation for handling difficult cases with a certain dogged determination. There will be more lawsuits, of course, and with guilt definitively stated by the special prosecutor's report, I would expect to see verdicts against the officers personally, and the Chicago Police Department and City of Chicago as well. (And to the extent that they're allowed to do so, the city and CPD will probably settle as many of these as they can to make them go away. That said, as mentioned in the last post on this subject, the city is required by union contract to pay for the defense of the accused officers; it may find itself in the bizarre position of settling the suits against the city and CPD proper while being forced to pursue the various individual cases against the officers to their bitter ends.
Posted by iain at July 19, 2006 11:10 AM
