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CHICAGO (AP) ― Leroy Orange says there's no mystery about how he landed on death row and languished there for almost two decades.

The 55-year-old former inmate claims Chicago police in 1984 jolted him with electric shocks from a mysterious "black box" until he confessed to a murder that he didn't commit. He's free now -- cleared of all charges by Gov. George Ryan in his final days in office four years ago.

But his story is far from over.

Now, lawyers for Orange and two other men claim the city reneged on a $14.8 million deal to settle the suits -- heating up long-simmering claims that Chicago police tortured suspects in the 1970s and '80s and embarrassing Mayor Richard Daley just days before voters decide whether he should be elected to a sixth term.

"I'm outraged," said Orange attorney G. Flint Taylor, one of several attorneys who claim the city agreed to the multi-million-dollar deal to settle the three lawsuits and that a federal judge witnessed the deal.

City officials say flatly that there was no deal.

"It is our position that we absolutely do not have a settlement," the city's top attorney, corporation counsel Mara Georges said.

She acknowledges city officials were in negotiations aimed at reaching a settlement but said she cannot talk about details because federal Judge Marvin E. Aspen, who served as mediator, imposed a confidentiality order.

U.S. District Chief Judge James F. Holderman told attorneys Thursday that he would hold an evidentiary hearing, if necessary, to get to the bottom of the matter. That could require city officials to answer questions under oath.

Meanwhile, U.S. Magistrate Judge Geraldine Soat Brown has ordered Daley to testify under oath in one of the three lawsuits, brought by Madison Hobley, who claims he was sent to death row after being tortured.

City officials may ask Aspen to let Daley off the hook, but either way, it's an embarrassment for the mayor.

Allegations of torture by detectives at the Area 2 violent crimes unit on Chicago's South Side, under Lt. Jon Burge, have simmered for decades. And Daley has been dogged by claims he knew about or helped cover up torture that occurred when he was Cook County state's attorney 20 years ago.

Burge was fired in 1993 after it was determined that another murder suspect, Andrew Wilson, was mistreated while in police custody. Through lawyers, Burge has denied that he ever engaged in torturing suspects to get confessions.

Two special prosecutors spent four years investigating the allegations and reported last July that police beat, kicked, shocked or otherwise tortured scores of black suspects in the 1970s and '80s by police trying to obtain confessions at the unit led by Burge. They said the cases were too old to prosecute.

They also said that Daley wasn't to blame for what happened.

In court papers filed last week, however, Taylor and other attorneys said provisions of the settlement they insist they reached with the city included an agreement that there would be no criticism of Daley.

They said a settlement was reached in November and only weeks ago they learned from Aspen that the city had an unspecified issue that prevented it from going ahead with the plan.

But only city officials and Judge Aspen know what that issue is and, for now, they won't say.

"Is it the election?" asked Hobley attorney Kurt H. Feuer. "If it is the election, then maybe we'll get a call on Wednesday morning."

Daley is expected to win easily over two challengers -- Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown and William "Dock" Walls, who served as an aide to one-time Mayor Harold Washington.

Tapping the city treasury for $14.8 million to settle claims that prisoners were tortured would be politically unpleasant but prevent the lawsuits from dragging on for months.

But Chicago aldermen, who would have to approve the settlement, also are up Tuesday, and some are facing tough challenges. They might prefer to grapple with the issue after Election Day rather than before.

Attorneys say their drive to collect the money over the last two weeks has nothing to do with the election. But even as Taylor was outlining his case at a news conference Thursday, Dorothy Brown was waiting a few feet away.

Stepping to the microphone, she said that if officials had settled the suits they "would have taken full responsibility for their actions and shown that they really do respect the African-American community."

Even if the three suits are settled, the question of police torture is likely to linger in Chicago. On Feb. 14, Daley was added as a co-defendant along with former Mayor Jane Byrne in a suit filed by Darrell Cannon, another man who claims he was tortured into confessing to a murder he didn't commit.

Daley said he wasn't surprised at being added to the suit, saying "Mayors get sued every day."

(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)