A former Chicago police commander pleaded not guilty Monday to lying about police torture of murder suspects, then was escorted out of the federal courthouse — apparently through a basement tunnel — to avoid an angry crowd outside.
A former Chicago police commander pleaded not guilty Monday to lying about police torture of murder suspects, then was escorted out of the federal courthouse — apparently through a basement tunnel — to avoid an angry crowd outside. Jon Burge appeared at a brief hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow, where his attorney, Richard Beuke, entered a not guilty plea on his behalf to perjury and obstruction-of-justice charges. Burge, 60, was arrested last week at his home in Apollo Beach, Fla., on charges that he lied under oath on written questions in a civil rights lawsuit when he denied he knew about or took part in the torture of suspects to get confessions during the 1970s and 80s. About two dozen people milling around the front of the courthouse chanted, "Burge must serve time! Burge must serve time!" Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, confirmed that federal marshals "escorted Burge out of the courthouse for security reasons" out of sight of the crowd and reporters. The route apparently was through a basement tunnel that leads to a building across the street; it has been used several times in the past to get high-profile defendants out of the building. Civil rights lawyers and critics of the police department long have accused Burge and detectives who served under him of beating and kicking individuals they were interrogating, as well as using electric shocks to force them to confess. Two court-appointed special prosecutors found two years ago that scores of Black suspects were tortured at the South Side’s Area 2 detective headquarters that Burge commanded but said it took place so long ago torture charges cannot be brought now. Burge is charged with lying about the alleged torture just five years ago in a lawsuit filed by former Death Row prisoner Madison Hobley. Hobley says detectives put a plastic typewriter cover over his head to make it impossible for him to breathe. Burge denied knowing anything about that practice, called "bagging," or taking part in it. The government has stopped short of saying Hobley was tortured. Burge was fired by the city in 1993. Before leaving office in 2003, then-Gov. George Ryan pardoned four death row inmates convicted on evidence gathered by the unit Burge commanded. The four later reached a $20 million settlement with the city. Burge was in court for about five minutes Monday and said nothing until the hearing was almost over and Lefkow said, "Mr. Burge, I didn’t say good morning to you." "Good morning, your honor," said the hefty former detective supervisor, who appeared in court with his blond hair slicked back and leaning on a wooden cane. Lefkow set Burge’s trial for May 11, although both sides said that was tentative. She excused Burge, who is free on $250,000 bond, from attending a Nov. 19 status hearing in the case after Beuke pointed out that the flight to Chicago from Florida is expensive. AP ______ Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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