Oct 18, 2007 6:04 pm US/Central
Prosecutors In Burge Torture Case Fight Back
New Report Says Attorneys Let Burge, Others Accused Of Torture, Off The Hook
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
A new report was released recently about Jon Burge, the former Chicago police officer accused of torturing suspects for years.
As CBS 2's Mike Parker reports, two veteran attorneys are now fighting back against accusations they let Burge and other allegedly crooked cops off the hook.
Attorney Robert Boyle and former judge Edward Egan are the special prosecutors who concluded last year that former police commander Burge and his associates used torture to get confessions. They also said the statute of limitations prevented criminal charges against Burge. And they refused to blame then-state's attorney Richard M. Daley and his first deputy Dick Devine.
Critics lashed out, calling their findings a "whitewash."
"They only touched the tip of the iceberg with regards to Daley's involvement," said attorney G. Flint Taylor.
Now, the prosecutors, in a new report, are firing back at critics, and they're talking exclusively to CBS 2.
"We have to show they actually suppressed something, that they had knowledge that a crime had been committed," Egan said. "We have no proof of it."
And Egan and Boyle are defending their decision to stay away from a recent city council hearing on the Burge case, saying it was "orchestrated" by lawyers who make their living suing police officers.
"I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would be involved in mob law," Egan said. "And that's the only way to describe what went on in the city council."
"I don't know any prosecutor who would've submitted to that kind of treatment," Boyle said.
"It was a circus," Egan added. "That's the way I have described it."
The U.S. Attorney recently disclosed that his office is investigating claims of perjury in federal court by figures involved in allegations of police torture.
Egan and Boyle say they're ready to help in that investigation.
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