Dec 31, 2008 3:30 pm US/Central
Suit: FOP Pays Legal Fees For Burge
Suit: FOP Pays Legal Fees For Burge, But Not For Blacks
CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) ―
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Former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge
CBS
A current and a former Chicago Police officer claim their union discriminates on the basis of race when it comes to paying the legal fees of members facing disciplinary action or criminal charges.
The two point to the Fraternal Order of Police footing the legal bill for former Cmdr. Jon Burge as proof of the FOP's racial bias. Burge was arrested in October and charged with obstruction of justice and perjury in relation to a civil suit regarding torture allegations against him. He is alleged to have tortured criminal suspects between 1972 and 1991 to force confessions. His trial is set for May 2009.
In a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday, Raysurnet Morris and William Whitaker, both black, contend their being denied but Burge granted payment of legal fees is racially discriminatory.
Morris was terminated from the CPD this year for alleged wrongful conduct, the suit says. The suit did not go into detail as to what that wrongful conduct was. Prior to her termination, Morris asked the FOP to pay her legal fees associated with her case. The FOP refused, the suit says, "holding that her alleged wrongful conduct was not within the scope of her employment."
She was terminated from the department in October, and in November made a second request to the FOP to pay her legal fees and was denied again, the suit claims.
Whitaker, the suit says, was acquitted of criminal charges in February 2007. He sought help from the FOP to pay his legal fees relating not to the arrest but the departmental hearing regarding whether he would be terminated. That hearing has yet to convene, but the FOP has refused to pay Whitaker's legal fees, the suit says.
The suit claims the payment by the FOP of legal fees for Burge, who is white, but not for non-white members such as Morris and Whitaker, violates the Equal Protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Whitaker and Morris seek an order for the FOP to stop payments of Burge's legal fees, and/or an order that legal fees be paid for all FOP members regardless of race. They also seek compensatory damages of $150,000 and punitive damages of $450,000.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2009. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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