cbs2chicago.com
Report On Torture By Former Cmdr. Jon Burge To Be Released
Mike Parker
Reporting
(CBS) CHICAGO After years of waiting, a judge has ruled that a report on brutality by Chicago Police will be released, although not for two weeks.
As CBS 2's Mike Parker reports, a United Nations committee had tough words about the alleged police brutality.
The United Nations Committee against Torture called for the shutdown the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, but there was also a focus on the alleged jailhouse torture tactics of former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge and his officers in the former Pullman (now Calumet) and Burnside detective units in the 1970s and 1980s.
"The United Nations has demanded that the federal government call to account those who are responsible for torture and those who have enjoyed impunity," said attorney Locke Bowman of the People's Law Office.
In an unprecedented document, the U.N. group condemned "police brutality and torture in Chicago, about which nothing has been done for a long time," and called for a "prompt, thorough, and impartial federal investigation."
The committee is a panel of 10 independent experts who review nations' compliance with a 1984 global convention establishing a broad ban on prisoner mistreatment.
It also called for the U.S. to improve conditions for women and children under custody.
Fernando Marino Menendez, an expert from Spain who chairs the committee, said the U.S. government needed to provide more information on what it was doing to ensure justice for people claiming to have been tortured by Chicago Police.
U.S. authorities should inform the committee "if they have already found out some problems about police brutality and torture in Chicago, about which nothing has been done for some time," Marino Menendez told reporters.
As the U.N. report came, so did a ruling by Cook County Criminal Court Chief Judge Paul P. Biebel Jr., that a special prosecutor's report on Burge and his fellow officers must be released to the public. When it is, in two weeks, it is expected to address the charges that officers used beatings and electric shocks to get confessions from criminal suspects.
"We're glad this day is coming," alleged torture victim David Bates said. "Hopefully, Jon Burge will have an orange jumpsuit on real soon."
Bates and 192 other African-American men say they were tortured by Burge.
The hope that Burge could later be the subject of a criminal prosecution was bolstered in the court decision Friday to release the special prosecutor's report on the torture allegations.
"The time has come for disclosure," attorney Locke Bowman said. "The time has come for people to be held accountable criminally."
The exhaustive, $5 million report on Burge and the torture allegations took four years to complete. But lawyers for police who testified, and took the Fifth Amendment, objected to their names being released.
Attorney Joe Roddy, representing the police officers, said: "They get tarnished because you say someone appeared before the grand jury and exercised their Constitutional rights. The public could say that's just part of a cover-up."
But a cover-up is exactly what the victims' lawyers say is going on.
"We feel this report is going to fully expose a continuing obstruction of justice on the special prosecutor's office," said attorney G. Flint Taylor.
Burge was fired from the Police Department in 1993 for torturing a murder suspect, and he then retired to Florida. But he never faced criminal charges.
Bates, who served 11 years for murder before being exonerated and released, said that needed to change.
"This was not just about getting confessions," Bates said. "This was about torturing black men, period."
Chief Criminal Court Judge Paul Biebel said the report will not be released until 10 a.m. June 2. Those two weeks would give time for everyone to read its instructions, the judge said.
Attorneys for police officers say they are thinking about going to the state Supreme Court to try to keep the report secret.
"This court is drawn to the path of full disclosure ... the release of the report will address the issues which have led to rumor and speculation which have spread unimpeded over the fabric of the Cook County criminal justice system for more than 30 years," Biebel wrote in a 19-page ruling.
Special prosecutors Edward J. Egan and Robert D. Boyle were appointed in 2002 to look into claims of torture by Burge.
Protesters who marched outside the Criminal Courts Building at 26th and California called for the Burge report to be released.
"This torture's been going on for a 30-year period and we think this report should be public knowledge," said protester Peter Zaczek. "And we also think the police officers involved in the torture should be prosecuted."
Added protester Mary Hibbitt: "I think it's terrible. Why shouldn't they make it public? Why should there be a cover-up? If it was me or anyone else it would be public."
CBS 2's Holly Gregory and Derrick Blakley contributed to this report.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
police+brutality Chicago United+Nations U.N. Torture
Report On Torture By Former Cmdr. Jon Burge To Be Released
Mike Parker
Reporting
(CBS) CHICAGO After years of waiting, a judge has ruled that a report on brutality by Chicago Police will be released, although not for two weeks.
As CBS 2's Mike Parker reports, a United Nations committee had tough words about the alleged police brutality.
The United Nations Committee against Torture called for the shutdown the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, but there was also a focus on the alleged jailhouse torture tactics of former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge and his officers in the former Pullman (now Calumet) and Burnside detective units in the 1970s and 1980s.
"The United Nations has demanded that the federal government call to account those who are responsible for torture and those who have enjoyed impunity," said attorney Locke Bowman of the People's Law Office.
In an unprecedented document, the U.N. group condemned "police brutality and torture in Chicago, about which nothing has been done for a long time," and called for a "prompt, thorough, and impartial federal investigation."
The committee is a panel of 10 independent experts who review nations' compliance with a 1984 global convention establishing a broad ban on prisoner mistreatment.
It also called for the U.S. to improve conditions for women and children under custody.
Fernando Marino Menendez, an expert from Spain who chairs the committee, said the U.S. government needed to provide more information on what it was doing to ensure justice for people claiming to have been tortured by Chicago Police.
U.S. authorities should inform the committee "if they have already found out some problems about police brutality and torture in Chicago, about which nothing has been done for some time," Marino Menendez told reporters.
As the U.N. report came, so did a ruling by Cook County Criminal Court Chief Judge Paul P. Biebel Jr., that a special prosecutor's report on Burge and his fellow officers must be released to the public. When it is, in two weeks, it is expected to address the charges that officers used beatings and electric shocks to get confessions from criminal suspects.
"We're glad this day is coming," alleged torture victim David Bates said. "Hopefully, Jon Burge will have an orange jumpsuit on real soon."
Bates and 192 other African-American men say they were tortured by Burge.
The hope that Burge could later be the subject of a criminal prosecution was bolstered in the court decision Friday to release the special prosecutor's report on the torture allegations.
"The time has come for disclosure," attorney Locke Bowman said. "The time has come for people to be held accountable criminally."
The exhaustive, $5 million report on Burge and the torture allegations took four years to complete. But lawyers for police who testified, and took the Fifth Amendment, objected to their names being released.
Attorney Joe Roddy, representing the police officers, said: "They get tarnished because you say someone appeared before the grand jury and exercised their Constitutional rights. The public could say that's just part of a cover-up."
But a cover-up is exactly what the victims' lawyers say is going on.
"We feel this report is going to fully expose a continuing obstruction of justice on the special prosecutor's office," said attorney G. Flint Taylor.
Burge was fired from the Police Department in 1993 for torturing a murder suspect, and he then retired to Florida. But he never faced criminal charges.
Bates, who served 11 years for murder before being exonerated and released, said that needed to change.
"This was not just about getting confessions," Bates said. "This was about torturing black men, period."
Chief Criminal Court Judge Paul Biebel said the report will not be released until 10 a.m. June 2. Those two weeks would give time for everyone to read its instructions, the judge said.
Attorneys for police officers say they are thinking about going to the state Supreme Court to try to keep the report secret.
"This court is drawn to the path of full disclosure ... the release of the report will address the issues which have led to rumor and speculation which have spread unimpeded over the fabric of the Cook County criminal justice system for more than 30 years," Biebel wrote in a 19-page ruling.
Special prosecutors Edward J. Egan and Robert D. Boyle were appointed in 2002 to look into claims of torture by Burge.
Protesters who marched outside the Criminal Courts Building at 26th and California called for the Burge report to be released.
"This torture's been going on for a 30-year period and we think this report should be public knowledge," said protester Peter Zaczek. "And we also think the police officers involved in the torture should be prosecuted."
Added protester Mary Hibbitt: "I think it's terrible. Why shouldn't they make it public? Why should there be a cover-up? If it was me or anyone else it would be public."
CBS 2's Holly Gregory and Derrick Blakley contributed to this report.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
police+brutality Chicago United+Nations U.N. Torture
