Ex-Chicago cop arrested in 1990s torture scandal

The Associated Press by MIKE ROBINSON - October 21, 2008

Chicago (AP) -- A former high-ranking Chicago police official was arrested Tuesday on charges he lied when he denied that he and detectives under his command tortured murder suspects, federal officials said. A federal indictment unsealed Tuesday accused former police Lt. Jon Burge of perjury and obstruction of justice for statements he made in 2003 when answering questions related to a civil rights lawsuit. The arrest capped a long-running controversy over allegations that beatings, electric shocks and death threats were used against suspects at Burge's Area 2 violent crimes headquarters. The allegations contributed to then-Gov. George Ryan's dramatic decision in early 2003 to empty the state's death row. Burge, 60, who has long denied wrongdoing, was arrested before dawn at his home in Apollo Beach, Fla., the U.S. attorney's office said. He had moved to Florida after he was fired in 1993. "There is no place for torture and abuse in a police station," U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in a statement. "There is no place for perjury and false statements in federal lawsuits. No person is above the law and no person — even a suspected murderer — is beneath its protection." Burge attorney James Sotos did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment. The two obstruction counts against Burge each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, while the perjury count carries up to five years. The indictment said Burge lied when he said he and other detectives hadn't participated in the "bagging" of Madison Hobley — covering his head with a typewriter cover until he couldn't breathe — in 1987.

Hobley was suspected of setting a fire that killed seven people including his wife and son. Hobley says he never did confess and that a confession introduced at his trial was fabricated by homicide detectives. He was convicted in 1990 and spent 13 years on death row but was among four men pardoned by Ryan in January 2003. The other 167 people then on Illinois' death row had their sentences commuted by Ryan, in most cases to life in prison. According to the indictment, Burge was asked whether he had been involved in or knew about torturing Hobley or others. Responding in writing, he stated: "I have not observed nor do I have knowledge of any other examples of physical abuse and/or torture on the part of Chicago police officers at Area 2." He repeatedly answered similar questions with flat denials. A report by two special prosecutors appointed by the Cook County Circuit Court concluded two years ago that Chicago police beat, kicked, shocked or otherwise tortured scores of black suspects in the 1970s and 1980s as they tried to force confessions. But they said the actions were too old to warrant indictments. The city has more recently agreed to pay $20 million to settle lawsuits by Hobley and other former inmates.