Dec 3, 2007 6:11 am US/Central
Co-Author Of Burge Report Dies
Former Cook County Prosecutor Helped Write Report On Police Torture Cases
CHICAGO (AP) ―
Robert Boyle, a former Cook County prosecutor who later wrote a report that detailed allegations of Chicago police torture, has died, according to his son. He was 71.
Boyle died of an apparent heart attack after falling asleep watching television at his home in Lincolnwood on Thursday night, said his son Tom Boyle, who added that his father did not appear to have any recent health problems.
Boyle, hired in the state's attorney's office in 1962, later went on to become a private practice attorney specializing in corporate law for 37 years.
"He was always my ideal of a big-city prosecutor, sleeves rolled up, ready to work," said Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Fitzgerald, who also once worked in the state's attorney's office. "He was a wonderful mentor to me when I was a young, new prosecutor."
The Chicago native who grew up on the city's Northwest Side was asked in 2002 to join special prosecutor Edward Egan in investigating allegations of torture by police officers under former Cmdr. Jon Burge on the South Side.
Their 300-page report, released in 2006, focused on allegations that nearly 200 black men were tortured in Chicago police interrogation rooms in the 1970s and 1980s. The scandal drew attention from human rights groups nationwide.
The report found that numerous suspects were tortured at Burge's Area 2 violent crime unit. But Boyle and Egan also angered victims by concluding the cases were too old to bring criminal charges.
Boyle is survived by his wife Mary Joan, three sons, two daughters and 14 grandchildren.
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