I am out of the country right now, so I didn't see this story from the Chicago Sun-Times dated 10/21 until today. I searched for Burge but got no hits on dKos, so apologies if someone already diaried this. Former Chicago Police Department commander Jon Burge, 60, was arrested at his Florida retirement home on Oct 21, 2008.
See the Sun-Times story with video
A little background below the fold.
Jon Burge was the notorious Chicago Police Department Area 2 Police commander during the 1980's. Allegations of torture against suspects at the Area 2 headquarters lead to investigations at the time, but no charges ever stuck. Nonetheless he was fired. Furthermore, former IL Gov. George Ryan pardoned four inmates on death row who were convicted based on evidence obtained from Burge and his lackies at Area 2.
Former Police Cmdr. Jon Burge - who has cast a long shadow over the Chicago Police Department because of accusations he tortured suspects for two decades - was arrested this morning on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
It was long believed Burge could not be prosecuted because of the statute of limitations. But the FBI arrested Burge, 60, at his retirement home near Tampa for allegedly lying about whether he and other officers under his command tortured suspects dating back to the 1980s.
What is outstanding is that the statute of limitations had run out on Burge's alleged crimes, yet US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald had him arrested on perjury and obstruction of justice charges stemming from a 2003 civil litigation trial from one of those pardoned individuals. In a sad and backhanded way, we have no one better to thank than Jon Burge for the ongoing moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois. I know that we are ever so close to an historic election and most will want to focus on that, but this really is great news and one that I hope is not lost in the mix.
Sorry for the short diary. I'm in Uruguay right now and I don't have a lot of time to give a more in-depth story.