Probe: Black Chicago Suspects Tortured
    By Don Babwin
    The Associated Press

    Wednesday 19 July 2006

Flint Taylor, of The People's Law Office, criticizes the contents of a 0aspecial prosecutor's report authorized by the Criminal Division of the 0aCircuit Court of Cook County into allegations of torture by members of 0athe Chicago Police Department Wednesday, July 19, 2006, during a press 0aconference in Chicago. Special prosecutors investigating allegations 0athat police tortured nearly 150 black suspects in the 1970s and '80s 0asaid Wednesday that they found evidence of abuse, but that any crimes 0aare now too old to prosecute. (Photo: M. Spencer Green / AP)

    Chicago - Chicago police beat, kicked, shocked or otherwise tortured scores of black suspects from the 1970s to the early 1990s to try to extract confessions from them, prosecutors reported Wednesday.

    However, the prosecutors - appointed by a Cook County judge four years ago to look into torture allegations - said that the cases are too old or too weak to prosecute anyone now.

    Prosecutors Robert D. Boyle and Edward Egan said they found evidence that police abused at least half the 148 suspects whose cases were reviewed. Nearly all of the suspects were black.

    Among other things, the suspects claimed that police beat them, played mock Russian roulette, administered electric shocks with a cattle prod-like device and a crank-operated "black box," and threw typewriter covers over their heads to make them gasp for air.

    The investigators were not able to substantiate all of the allegations, but made it clear they believed many of the claims, including the use of the black box on at least one man, and said that in the majority of cases, suspects were beaten with fists, feet or telephone books.

Mary L. Johnson, whose son Michael Johnson claims he was a victim of 0aphysical abuse while being held by Chicago Police in the early 1980s, 0acriticizes the the contents of a special prosecutor's report 0aauthorized by the Criminal Division of the Circuit Court of Cook 0aCounty into allegations of torture by by members of the Chicago Police 0aDepartment Wednesday, July 19, 2006, during a press conference in 0aChicago. The allegations focus on actions by Chicago police officers 0aunder former Commander Jon Burge used to obtain confessions during the 0a1970s and '80s. (Photo: M. Spencer Green / AP)

    Boyle and Egan said that in only three cases involving a total of five former officers was there enough evidence to prosecute, but the three-year statute of limitations has run out.

    "We only wish that we could indict on these three cases," Boyle said, after a $6.1 million investigation that involved more than 33,300 documents, the issuance of 217 grand jury subpoenas and interviews of more than 700 people.

    Among those five officers was Jon Burge, a lieutenant who commanded a violent-crimes unit and the so-called "midnight crew" that allegedly participated in most of the alleged torture.

    Neither Burge nor anyone else has ever been charged, but Burge was fired in 1991 after a police board found that a murder suspect was abused while in custody. Burge's attorney has said that Burge never tortured anyone.

Flint Taylor (left), of The People's Law Office, and Locke Bowman (right), of the MacArthur Justice Center, listen to Lawrence Kennon, 0aof the Cook County Bar Association, as he criticizes the the contents 0aof a special prosecutor's report authorized by the Criminal Division 0aof the Circuit Court of Cook County into allegations of torture by by 0amembers of the Chicago Police Department Wednesday, July 19, 2006, 0aduring a press conference in Chicago. The allegations focus on actions 0aby Chicago police officers under former Commander Jon Burge used to 0aobtain confessions during the 1970s and '80s. (Photo: M. Spencer Green / AP)

    In their 300-page report, the prosecutors accused then-police Superintendent Richard Brzeczek of dereliction of duty and said he and a former top official at the Cook County State's Attorney's office, William Kunkle, failed to pursue an investigation into allegations of torture.

    "They can blame me for whatever they want to blame me for," Brzeczek said. "I know what I did was correct. It was not dereliction of duty."

    Kunkle, now a Cook County circuit judge, was not available for comment, his staff said.

    Mayor Richard M. Daley was the state's attorney during part of the period investigated, but Boyle dismissed any notion that Daley knew about the torture. Daley delegated responsibilities to other people in his office, and his only mistake was "perhaps relying on the judgment of others," Boyle said.

    The Daley administration had no immediate comment.

Locke Bowman, of the MacArthur Justice Center, criticizes the contents 0aof a special prosecutor's report authorized by the Criminal Division 0aof the Circuit Court of Cook County into allegations of torture by by 0amembers of the Chicago Police Department Wednesday, July 19, 2006, 0aduring a press conference in Chicago. Special prosecutors 0ainvestigating allegations that police tortured nearly 150 black 0asuspects in the 1970s and '80s said Wednesday they found evidence of 0aabuse, but any crimes are now too old to prosecute. (Photo: M. Spencer Green / AP)

    The report goes into graphic detail about the torture of Andrew Wilson, the convicted murderer of two Chicago police officers. Wilson said that he was beaten and kicked during his interrogation, and that officers put a plastic bag over his head and burned his arm with a cigarette.

    Then, he said, an officer pulled from a grocery bag a black box that had a crank on it. He said alligator clips were attached to his left ear and left nostril and he received a shock when an officer cranked the box. Burge, he said, also cranked the box to shock him and then put a gun in Wilson's mouth and clicked it.

    The report said no black box was ever recovered. But the report makes it clear that there is ample evidence - including burn marks on Wilson's nostril and ear - that such a device was used.

    Attorneys for the alleged torture victims called on Illinois' chief federal prosecutor to bring federal charges. But Boyle said the U.S. attorney has also concluded that the statute of limitations has run out.

    Several people who claimed to have been abused by Chicago detectives have sued the city and the police department, and the report could bolster their cases. Attorney Locke Bowman of the MacArthur Justice Center said the City Council should pay for counseling for those who contend they were tortured.

    "That is not where this matter should rest. That is not where it will rest," Bowman said.

    Chicago Police Superintendent Phil Cline said the report does not reflect today's department. He said a new system videotapes all police interrogations of murder suspects and prevents the type of abuse detailed in the report.

    The release of the report was the subject of a legal battle. The Illinois Supreme Court eventually denied a request from a former prosecutor, identifiedin court documents only as "John Doe," to block portions from being released.

    In May, a U.N. anti-torture panel said the Chicago investigation needed to go further.

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    Associated Press writers Sharon Cohen and Carla K. Johnson contributed to this report.