May 20, 2006
Jon Burge began his "house of torture" in 1973 and did not stop until he was 'fired' in Feb. 1993. [MORE]
A report from a four-year, multimillion-dollar investigation into allegations that Chicago police tortured black suspects should be released to the public, a judge ruled Friday. Attorneys for several officers involved in the case had argued against the release of the report, which addresses accusations that police tortured 192 black men in interrogation rooms during the 1970s and 1980s. But in authorizing special prosecutors to release the document, Chief Criminal Court Judge Paul Biebel wrote that "the public's right to be informed of the results of this exhaustive investigation outweighs the privacy rights of the individual officers." Allegations include officers using suffocation techniques, such as placing a typewriter cover over a suspect's head, electric shocks, beatings and mock Russian roulette to elicit confessions. Many of the accusers have pointed to officers who were overseen by Commander Jon Burge, who was fired from the Chicago Police Department in 1993. "After the third torture session, I understood that these guys weren't going to let me out of there alive if I didn't say what they wanted," said David Bates, who was among the people whose cases were investigated by the special prosecutor. Mr. Bates said police beat him and covered his head with a typewriter cover in 1983 until he confessed to a crime he says he did not commit. One of the prosecutors, Edward J. Egan, said the report would be reviewed for accuracy and not released before June 2. It is unclear whether the investigation will lead to indictments. Statutes of limitations could be an issue. [MORE] and [MORE]
- Pictured above: Jon Burge and Aaron Patterson. Patterson was sentenced to death in 1989 for the murder of an elderly couple. Patterson's conviction rested primarily on a confession obtained by a group of south side police officers later shown to have engaged in systematic torture of suspects in scores of criminal cases. Immediately after signing the confession, Patterson used a paper clip he found to scratch into a metal bench: "Police threaten me with violence . . . Slapped and suffocated me with plastic . . . Signed false statement to murders." He was pardoned by Illinois Governor George Ryan in January, 2003. [MORE] and [MORE]
Pictured: David Bates talks with reporters after a Chicago judge ruled Friday, May 19, 2006. Bates has said he was convicted of murder and other charges in the mid-1980s due to a false confession he gave after being tortured by Chicago police, but he was eventually freed on appeal.