Burge suits could cost city $195 mil.
TORTURE LAWSUITS | 13 aldermen say case 'untenable,' want to settle

September 23, 2007
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Staff Reporter apallasch@suntimes.com
Chicago taxpayers could be on the hook for $96 million to $195 million if the city insists on going to court to defend former Police Cmdr. Jon Burge in civil suits filed by men who say his officers tortured false confessions from them, according to a study by five men suing Burge.

The city was ready to settle with three of the men for $14.8 million, according to court filings in the case.

Instead, the city will pay more than that just to lawyers for Burge -- $16 million -- to prepare the case, interview witnesses, etc., says the study by Steven Whitman, the City of Chicago's former chief epidemiologist. That is on top of the $8 million the city already has paid Burge's lawyers.

All five men were freed from prison after their confessions were found to have been coerced. Burge was fired after the city accused him of allowing torture, but he still draws a city pension.

Whitman estimated jurors would award the men $500,000 to $2 million for each year each man was wrongfully imprisoned.

Even if the city were to win all five cases -- and Whitman estimated only a 3 percent chance of that -- the city would spend $16 million on Burge's lawyers, he said.

Asked about the study Saturday, Mayor Daley said: "Every lawyer wants more money. It's all about money. Sure you have to settle but you have to have a reasonable settlement. You would take $300 million? That's why lawyers sue everybody."

Some aldermen have blasted the city Legal Department, urging it to settle and arguing the city can't win cases defending Burge after it fired him for running a torture department in the 1980s.

The Council's Finance Committee is to discuss the issue Wednesday.

Contributing: Art Golab