By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
A former Chicago police commander was convicted Monday in U.S. District Court of perjury and obstruction of justice linked to denials that he participated in torturing suspects in custody decades ago, the Justice Department said.
Jon Burge, 60, now of Apollo Beach, Fla., was convicted by a Chicago federal jury, which found he lied and impeded court proceedings in November 2003 after he provided false statements in a civil lawsuit that alleged that he and others tortured people in custody, the Justice Department said in a press release.
During trial, several victims testified that Burge and other cops who worked for him tortured them.
The Justice Department said witnesses alleged that ” officers administered electric shocks to their genitals, suffocated them with typewriter covers, threatened them with loaded guns and burned them on radiators.”
“For decades, Jon Burge’s horrific actions ran contrary to all that our justice system stands for,” Thomas Perez, assistant Attorney General for civil rights, said in a statement.
“Burge betrayed the public trust, first by abusing suspects in his custody, and then by lying under oath to cover up what he and other officers had done. The jury’s verdict allows those harmed by his actions to finally start the healing process.”
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald added in a statement: “At long last, a measure of justice was delivered today when a jury returned a verdict of guilty against Jon Burge on obstruction of justice and perjury.”
“The verdict necessarily found that torture and abuse occurred in police districts in the city of Chicago in the 1980s. It’s disgraceful that torture happened and sad that it took so long to bring Burge to justice, and the only thing that would have been worse is if this measure of justice never happened,” said Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.”
