Former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge arrives at the Dirksen Federal Building for his sentencing hearing Thursday morning January 20, 2011.
John Konstantaras/Chicago News Cooperative
Former Chicago police officer Jon Burge listened stoically Thursday as people who said they were torture victims, former fellow officers and a University of Chicago professor told federal Judge Joan Lefkow of the lasting impact of the alleged torture by Mr. Burge and officers under his command.
More than 1,000 people have signed a petitions and scores of others have sent letters to Judge Lefkow arguing that the approximately two years he would face under sentencing guidelines outlined Thursday are not adequate punishment for frequent use of electric shock, beating, choking and other alleged abuse of African-American men during interrogations at the Area Two headquarters on the South Side from the 1970s through Burge’s suspension from the force in 1991.
Burge was convicted in June of perjury and two counts of obstruction of justice for lying during a 2003 civil lawsuit brought by Madison Hobley, who was sentenced to death on charges he set a fire that killed his wife, son and five others. Mr. Hobley said he was suffocated with a plastic typewriter cover during questioning in 1987. He was pardoned and along with three other exonerated Death Row inmates sued the city and won a settlement totaling nearly $20 million.
Burge could face a maximum sentence of up to 45 years. Prosecutors have recommended a 30-year sentence, and the U.S. Probation Office recommended a prison term of 15 to 21 months. On Wednesday, Judge Lefkow ruled in favor of the probation office, but Thursday she accepted enhanced sentencing guidelines requested by prosecutors that would dictate sa minimum 21 to 27 months. At sentencing on Friday she could still choose a longer sentence.
The defense plans to bring witnesses on Friday to speak on Burge’s behalf. They are likely to include a police chaplain and a family member of an officer killed in 1982 by brothers Andrew and Jackie Wilson, whose accusations against Burge first brought the torture scandal to light. Supporters of Burge have also sent letters to Judge Lefkow, describing him as a caring officer and an effective supervisor.
The defense has argued that several years in prison would amount to a life sentence for Burge, who suffers from prostate cancer, congestive heart failure, chronic bronchitis and other ailments. Burge coughed periodically and moved stiffly during the proceedings today.
Anthony Holmes and Melvin Jones, who say they were shocked and beaten by Burge, said they continue to suffer nightmares and other psychological effects and fear police officers. Jones said flashbacks “come back in my everyday life, in my dreams, every time I walk this earth.” Holmes said his wife divorced him and took their children to Texas during his incarceration, and since then he has a relationship with only one of his 11 children.
“It took years for anyone to even listen to what I had to say,” said Holmes, adding that Burge “laughed while he tortured me.” Holmes said he still wakes up in a cold sweat feeling that he is “falling in a big hole and no one is helping me to get out.”
Joey Mogul, an attorney with the People’s Law Office who has represented men suing Burge, said that Holmes and Jones, like the majority of Burge’s alleged victims, cannot sue because the statute of limitations on the alleged torture has run out.
Lawyers and advocates are asking Mayor Richard M. Daley to provide compensation and mental health services for the men, and are pushing for new trials for more than 20 prisoners who say they were tortured.
Prosecutors today also called University of Chicago history professor Adam Green, who said the severity of Burge’s sentence would be a defining moment in Chicago race relations. Adequate restituion “Reaffirms the sense that everyone who is part of that community is a human being.”
“While law enforcement may pay attention to these communities, it’s a certain kind of condescending, superior, contentious kind of attitude” he said. “They see these communities as beneath them.”
Green distinguished between physical abuse and torture, saying torture is explicitly meant to send a message that the aggressor is superior to their victims. On cross-examination Green was asked whether the Wilson brothers’ shooting of two officers would also qualify as such a statement of superiority. Prosecutors countered that the Wilsons’ crimes should not influence Burge’s sentencing.
Howard Saffold, a former Chicago police officer who spent time at Area Two, told Judge Lefkow that Burge’s actions turned back gains that police had made in repairing relationships with black Chicagoans after the tumultuous civil rights era.
Saffold formerly headed the Afro-American Patrolmen’s League, a reform organization focused on easing tensions between black and white officers. He said many residents think “this is the kind of case a fix could be made on,” and if they don’t feel like justice is done, “that’s dangerous.”
“This case puts the entire justice system on trial,” he said.
