Former Police Commander Jon Burge Expected To Be Released From Prison Thursday
CHICAGO (AP) — A former Chicago police commander in federal prison for lying about the torture of suspects by officers under his command is expected to be released Thursday, his lawyer said.
Jon Burge has served more than three years on a conviction of perjury in connection with testimony he gave in a civil case involving torture allegations. His lawyer, Richard Bueke, said Wednesday that Burge's family notified him that the ex-lieutenant, who was convicted in June 2010, will leave prison Thursday.
Bueke said Burge, who lived in Florida when he was arrested, will not return to Chicago.
More than 100 men have accused Burge and officers under his command of shocking, suffocating and beating them into giving false confessions during the 1970s and 1980s. Burge has never been criminally charged with torture, but the scandal has dogged the city for decades.
The scandal has cost Chicago more than $100 million — much of it to settle lawsuits of men who spent decades in prison after confessing to crimes they did not commit. And since Burge and the other former officers involved were city employees, the city has had to pay for their legal representation, plus millions of dollars more for their pensions that must be paid for the rest of their lives.
Chicago officials have complained for years about the city having to continue to pay Burge's pension. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan tried to challenge a police pension board preserving the payments to Burge, but the Illinois Supreme Court in July ruled 4-3 that Madigan cannot challenge the vote.
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