By John Conroy
In Los Angeles, revelations that suspects were framed, punched, kicked, choked, and beaten by 70 policemen from the Rampart Division has resulted in a systematic reexamination of cases in which the accused cops took part. The review began after LAPD officer Rafael Perez was arrested for stealing cocaine from evidence lockers. Perez admitted committing perjury in hundreds of cases, indicating it was standard procedure in his unit. His confession launched an investigation of approximately 1,000 cases, and so far more than 100 convictions have been thrown out. Forty officers have been disciplined, including five who were fired. Nine of the policemen under suspicion have resigned. One has retired. By the end of December, 30 officers had pending or ongoing disciplinary trials taking place.
In a written opinion issued in February 1993, the board concluded that Wilson had been burned at Area Two, but they did not say who did the burning. They noted that they were impressed with Jones’s testimony about receiving electric shock torture about a week before Wilson, but the board never said that Burge or any other officer had shocked anyone, nor did they use the word torture. They concluded that Burge did “strike and/or kick and/or otherwise physically abuse or maltreat Wilson.” The board members, appointed by the mayor, seemed afraid to shine too much light in so dark a corner. They threw Burge off the force, suspended two of his detectives for 15 months, and haven’t dealt with the scandal since.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
But what is common knowledge in City Hall and federal court has yet to be recognized in the office of Cook County state’s attorney Richard Devine. Devine served in the state’s attorney’s office in the 1980s, when many of the Area Two cases were prosecuted. Asked twice by Carol Marin on 60 Minutes II if there was any doubt that there had been torture at Area Two, Devine evaded the question both times. Asked by NBC News correspondent Geraldo Rivera if there was a pattern of torture at Area Two, Devine said, “Defense attorneys have made that allegation….They have attempted to combine a number of cases under the rubric of that allegation and by doing so they have attempted to create an image that all these cases are exactly the same and they are not.”
The Illinois Supreme Court has been equally reluctant to acknowledge that a torture ring operated at Area Two, even though the judges have dealt with a series of cases naming the same officers, the same locations, and the same techniques. In rulings on those cases between the years 1987 and 1998, the state’s highest court established three hurdles for Area Two victims. The judges demanded that a defendant who wanted to bolster his own claim of torture by presenting another man’s testimony of torture by the same policemen could not do so unless the two alleged victims had been tortured (1) with the same methods; (2) within a relatively short period of time; and (3) with the result of demonstrable physical injury.
Alas, we will never know. The hearing, which started in September 1999, met sporadically into this year. Cannon had almost finished putting on his witnesses, and it was expected that the state would soon call Dignan and Byrne to the stand, when the two sides agreed to a plea bargain. On January 19, Cannon dropped his claim of torture and pled guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and armed violence. In exchange, the state dropped murder charges. Thus Cannon achieved the promise of freedom in about two and a half years, and the state kept Dignan and Byrne off the witness stand.
Judge Fitzgerald suggested putting the case on the docket of Lawrence Fox. Neither side objected to that. Fox, a former public defender, has a reputation as an independent thinker whose decisions are rarely reversed on appeal.
