CHICAGO — A former high-ranking Chicago police official was arrested Tuesday on charges he lied when he denied that he and detectives under his command tortured murder suspects, federal officials said.
A federal indictment unsealed Tuesday accused former police Lt. Jon Burge of perjury and obstruction of justice for statements he made in 2003 when answering questions for a civil-rights lawsuit.
The arrest capped a long-running controversy over allegations that beatings, electric shocks and death threats were used against suspects at Burge’s Area 2 violent-crimes headquarters. The allegations contributed to then-Gov. George Ryan’s dramatic decision in early 2003 to empty the state’s death row.
Burge, 60, who has long denied wrongdoing, was arrested before dawn at his home in Apollo Beach, Fla., the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. He had moved to Florida after he was fired in 1993.
The two obstruction counts against Burge each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, while the perjury count carries up to five years. Burge was tentatively scheduled for arraignment in Chicago on Nov. 27.
The indictment said Burge lied in his response to the civil-rights lawsuit when he said he and other detectives hadn’t tortured anyone. That lawsuit, filed by Madison Hobley, alleged that Burge and other detectives had tortured him in 1987, including covering his head with a typewriter cover until he couldn’t breathe.
Hobley was suspected of setting a fire that killed seven people, including his wife and son.
