Jury Awards $5.2 Million To Stanley Wrice, Who Says He Was Beaten Into Rape Confession By Jon Burge's Detectives
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A jury on Tuesday awarded $5.2 million to Stanley Wrice, a man who said he was tortured by corrupt Chicago Police detectives into confessing to a brutal rape in 1982.
Wrice's attorney said the jury in his lawsuit against the City of Chicago found the detectives coerced a confession from Wrice and engaged in conspiracy.
The verdict awarded Wrice $4 million in compensatory damages and $600,000 in punitive damages for each of the defendants – who also include the late police Cmdr. Jon Burge and other detectives who worked under him.
Wrice spent more than 31 years in prison for the brutal 1982 rape of a 33-year-old woman. He was exonerated of his rape conviction in 2013, but was never actually given a certificate of innocence.
A judge declined Wrice's bid for a certificate of innocence in 2014, saying there was substantial evidence he committed the rape.
But Wrice, 66, said he was handcuffed in a cell and beaten until he gave a false confession back in 1982. He said two officers at the Calumet Area Headquarters, Sgt. John Byrne and Detective Peter Dignan, who both worked directly under Burge – beat him with a flashlight and hit him with a length of rubber hose.
Wrice also claimed Burge himself beat him in the groin and face until he confessed.
Wrice's attorneys say medical evidence supports his injuries.
The Wrice verdict was one of two monstrous verdicts against the City of Chicago on Tuesday. A jury also awarded $1 million to the family of Kajuan Raye, who was shot and killed by Chicago Police Sgt. John Poulos in Englewood in 2016.