Lawyers for Jon Burge, the former Chicago police commander accused of lying about alleged acts of torture, have asked for a mistrial based on new evidence recently given to the defense by prosecutors.
Burge faces charges of perjury and obstruction of justice relating to allegations that he and officers beneath him tortured black male suspects into confessions in the 1970s and 1980s at Area 2 police headquarters on Chicago’s South Side. The third week of the trial began today in U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow‘s courtroom.
Burge is accused of lying during a civil case filed by former Death Row inmate Madison Hobley, who claimed he had been tortured in confessing to multiple killings.
Late last week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office gave Burge’s defense attorneys a report of an October 2008 interview of inmate Darryl Simms by a prosecutor and special agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The report states that Simms was locked up with Hobley at Pontiac Correctional Center.
“Hobley treated Simms as a confidant, and confessed to committing the arson that resulted in deaths of his wife and son.”… “(At) no time did Hobley ever mention being beaten by the police,” Burge’s attorneys stated in the motion for mistrial.
“The report goes on to relate that Hobley plotted to find legal loophole, or mitigation material,” the attorneys wrote. “Hobley joined a group of condemned inmates known as the ‘Death Row 10,’ who worked on trying to secure release from prison. Simms believed that the Death Row 10 was the source of Hobley’s false allegations regarding police abuse. Simms disassociated himself from the group because of its gang proclivities, and because it ‘became more about making up ways to get released from prison.’”
Burge filed a motion in April 2009 requesting exculpatory materials. He explained his defense theory that gang members made up stories of abuse by Burge and officers at Area 2: “We have reason to believe that other individuals, including individuals incarcerated with complainants, have personal knowledge of the plan to fabricate allegations against police officers.”
Burge attorney Richard Beuke said Lefkow has taken the request for a mistrial under advisement, while arrangements are made for Simms to be produced for interviews with the defense.