Chicago Area Local News

TAMPA, Fla. (CBS) ― Former Police Cmdr. Jon Burge — who has cast a long shadow over the Chicago Police Department because of accusations he tortured suspects for two decades — was arrested by FBI agents Tuesday morning on civil rights charges in his hometown near Tampa.

It was long believed Burge could not be prosecuted because of the statute of limitations. But the FBI arrested Burge, 60, before dawn at his Apollo Beach, Fla., home on federal charges stemming from his conduct at the Chicago Police Department. He has been charged with obstruction of justice and perjury.

The arrest capped a long-running controversy over allegations that torture was used against suspects at Burge's Calumet Area violent crimes headquarters during the 1970s and 80s. He has been accused of torturing suspects by using cattle prods, bags over their heads and a "black box" that administered electric shocks.

Federal prosecutors in Chicago obtained a sealed indictment charging him with perjury and obstruction of justice when he answered questions about police torture. Specifically, the indictment charges that Burge lied in written answers to a civil rights lawsuit when he said he and other detectives hadn't participated in such activities as the "bagging" of a suspect -- covering his head with a typewriter cover until he couldn't breathe.

"There is no place for torture and abuse in a police station," U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in a statement issued after the arrest. "There is no place for perjury and false statements in federal lawsuits. No person is above the law and no person -- even a suspected murderer -- is beneath its protection."

Chicago FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Robert Grant added: "Every day Chicago Police Officers execute their sworn duties lawfully with great skill, courage and integrity. Sometimes they do so with great peril, as we have been sadly reminded in recent weeks and months. But police officers have a special duty which is underscored by today's announcement. Police officers don't serve the public as judge and jury and they have a special responsibility to care for those within their custody, regardless of their alleged crimes. Today's announcement brings great shame on the career of retired Commander Jon Burge."

Burge was arrested after federal prosecutors in Chicago obtained a sealed indictment charging him with perjury and obstruction of justice statements he made when answering questions about allegations of police torture in a civil lawsuit.

According to the indictment, Burge was asked whether he had been involved in the torture of homicide suspect Madison Hobley and said: "I have not observed nor do I have knowledge of any other examples of physical abuse and/or torture on the part of Chicago police officers at Area 2."

He repeatedly answered similar questions with flat denials.

Hobley claims he was tortured into giving a confession.

Burge was fired from the department 15 years ago after the Chicago Police Board found he tortured accused police killer Andrew Wilson into giving a confession. Burge was never charged with a crime, and moved to Florida soon after his firing.

The former detective has continued receiving a city pension and taxpayer-paid legal representation.

Last year, the city spent nearly $20 million settling four cases lodged by men who were freed from Death Row after saying they were tortured into giving false confessions by or under Burge. The former commander was subpoenaed to give depositions in those lawsuits.

In 2006, a $7 million report by special Cook County prosecutors found that Burge, a Vietnam veteran, and his underlings tortured criminal suspects for two decades while police brass allegedly looked the other way.

The special prosecutors who authored the report concluded no charges could be filed because time had run out under the statute of limitations. Both special prosecutors, Robert Boyle and Edward Egan, have since died.

"Those men of extreme power in this city chose not to prosecute, but rather to cover up," said attorney Flint Taylor.

One of the men of power he singled out was Mayor Richard M. Daley, who was the Cook County State's Attorney part of the time Burge was under investigation. 

Former Chicago Police Supt. Richard Brzeczek says he brought questions about Burge's techniques to then state's attorney Daley in 1982, and he says he asked for guidance.

Daley's response to Taylor: "I was proud of my role as prosecutor. I was not the mayor or the police chief. I did not promote this man in the '80s." 

When asked about his responsibility later on Tuesday, Mayor Daley was emphatic.

"Do you think I would sit by, let anyone say that police brutality takes place, I know about it, that I had knowledge about it and I would allow it?" Daley said. "Then you don't know my public career. You don't know what I stand for."

Late last year, five Chicago aldermen sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald calling on him to "investigate, indict and prosecute" Burge for torturing suspects.

In 2003, former Gov. George Ryan pardoned four men after deeming they were tortured into giving confessions by Burge or under Burge's command. One of those men, Aaron Patterson, is back in prison on an unrelated conviction. There is also a pending federal criminal investigation against Hobley.

An attorney who represents two men allegedly tortured by Burge's detectives called the arrest of "enormous symbolic importance" in Chicago, where the police department has long been dogged by allegations of misconduct.

"This has been a symbol of a pattern of racism and of police as an occupier in certain neighborhoods, and the federal government stepping in here just has enormous importance even if it only this one case," said Locke Bowman, of the MacArthur Justice Center at the Northwestern University School of Law.

The Rev. Al Sharpton says said Burge's arrest was long overdue. He said Burge's arrest is a good sign, but he urged federal officials to continue investigating abuse allegations and who else might have been involved.

Chicago Police said in an official statement that department should not be judged based on Burge's actions.

"The Chicago Police Department has always supported the Special Prosecutor's investigation and has been committed to cooperating on every level," the statement said. "What occurred 20 years ago should not tarnish or diminish the dedicated service of 13,500 men and women who do a good job protecting the citizens of Chicago every day."

The statement added, "Today's news reinforces even further our obligation as law enforcement to reassure the public that the Department is moving forward in the right direction and that we continue to place emphasis on accountability and internal discipline like never before."

The two obstruction counts against Burge each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The perjury count carries up to five years. Each count also provides for a $250,000 fine.

Burge was scheduled for a Tuesday afternoon court appearance in Tampa, Fla. and tentatively scheduled to be arraigned in Chicago on Oct. 27.

The probe isn't finished. It could extend to others in the know or involved who remained silent.

"If their life line is hanging onto a perceived code of silence, they may be hanging on air," Fitzgerald said.

Burge Declines To Comment
As CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports, leaving the federal courthouse wearing jeans and a faded shirt pulled on in haste after being surprised by FBI agents early Tuesday morning, Jon Burge declined to share his reaction to the indictment.

"I'm not at liberty to say," Burge said. "Talk to my attorney."

"He has an arraignment where he'll plead not guilty," said Burge federal defender Dionja Dyer.

Burge was released after posting his home as bond to insure he'd show up for a court appearance in Chicago next Monday. Arriving home tonight, he again declined to answer questions, without a word, leaving his car and heading into the house.

He'd been arrested at his Apollo Beach home at 7:15 a.m., just before U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald told reporters he now had the proof which had eluded prosecutors for years.

"Burge participated in and witnessed of people in police custody," Fitzgerald said.

But it wasn't torture with the infamous black box which allegedly delivered electric shocks to prisoners that Burge was indicted for. It was lying about it.

In a deposition he took the fifth, but his response to written questions a year earlier, led to charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

"I have never used ...any means of improper coercion of suspects while in detention or during interrogation."

"That was a lie," Fitzgerald said.

Jon Burge was suspended in 1991 before being fired in 1993, but still collects a police pension and until today, had city attorneys representing him. Fitzgerald said the expiring statute of limitations wasn't going to stop him from seeking justice.

-- CBS 2's Jay Levine and Kristyn Hartman contributed to this report. Sun-Times staff reporters Natasha Korecki and Frank Main contributed to this report, via the STNG Wire. The Associated Press also contributed.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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