Public to see report on cop torture allegations

May 20, 2006


A four-year investigation of torture allegations against a Chicago Police unit will be made public -- including the names of officers and prosecutors who refused to testify before the grand jury.

Cook County Criminal Court Presiding Judge Paul Biebel ruled Friday that the public interest in clearing the air about decades-old allegations of torture and cover-ups outweighs the traditional expectations of privacy in grand jury proceedings.

"The release of the report will address the issues which have led to rumor and speculation which have spread unimpeded over the fabric of the Cook County criminal justice system for more than 30 years," Biebel said.

Excerpted from the Sun-Times story “Silent no more, cop lashes back” on Feb. 12, 2001:

Chicago Police Lt. Peter Dignan was decorated for heroism after he rescued two detectives wounded in a shootout with a drug suspect in 1994 and killed the gunman. Yet his career already was tarnished: He was accused a decade earlier of torturing murder suspect Darrell Cannon and another man.

Cannon was convicted of murder in the October 1983 shooting of a reputed drug dealer but claimed Dignan put an empty shotgun to his head and pulled the trigger three times to extract a confession. Dignan said Cannon’s torture allegations were simply the last-ditch effort of a previously convicted killer and El Rukn general to get off the hook in the 1983 slaying.

“I don’t think Darrell Cannon should ever hit the streets again,” Dignan said, pointing to Cannon’s lengthy record of violence that includes a conviction for the 1969 murder of a toy store owner, Emmanuel Lazar, 60, on the South Side. Cannon also alleged a police frame-up in that case.

Dignan admits he was carrying a shotgun when he and other detectives arrested Cannon about 7 a.m. on Nov. 2, 1983, at an apartment at 7445 S. Kingston in the slaying of a reputed drug dealer the previous month. Dignan said he checked his shotgun into Area 2 headquarters before the alleged abuse occurred. He denied Cannon’s claim that he was taken to a secret interrogation hideout near the 12400 block of Torrence where Dignan tortured him with a shotgun.

Dignan is accused of putting the gun behind his head, clicking twice, then forcing it into Cannon’s mouth and squeezing the trigger again. Cannon claimed Dignan pulled the shotgun from a leather case.

Dignan said that was ludicrous because shotguns were stored on racks at Area 2 and officers did not carry them in cases.

Former Police Cmdr. Jon Burge and officers under him at Area 2 are accused of torturing confessions out of suspects in the 1970s and 1980s.

It will be at least two weeks before the report is finished and released.

Cook County taxpayers have spent more than $7 million over the past four years for retired Appellate Justice Edward Egan, his deputy Robert Boyle, and other attorneys they have hired to compile the report. Chicago taxpayers have spent $10 million so far on lawyers for police officers and others who were arguing to keep the report secret.

Part of the reason Biebel decided to make the report public is some officers have granted interviews offering their side of the story. Biebel noted that former Police Lt. Peter Dignan granted the Sun-Times an interview in 2001 giving his account of what happened in Area 2.

Attorneys for the allegedly tortured men -- some of whom have had their convictions overturned -- praised the decision to make the report public but said they hope that is not the end of it.

"I hope it's not just a stack of paper we receive for $7 million -- I hope someone gets indicted," said attorney Jon Loevy. Loevy said he hopes the report could be turned over to federal prosecutors to give them a "game plan to pick up the ball and run with it."

'Vigilante justice'

On the other side, attorneys for the accused officers and former prosecutors who asked Biebel not to release the report said Friday they may consider asking the state Supreme Court to block the release.

Against a backdrop of anti-Burge protesters, attorney Joseph Roddy said he hopes the report's release does not result in "vigilante justice" against his clients.

One former prosecutor, however, won the right to keep his grand jury testimony secret. The prosecutor, who left the office in 1982 and is known as "John Doe," had his request to block the report's release referred to another judge because he apparently has an acquaintance with Biebel.

The other judge, Michael Toomin, released a report after Biebel's, agreeing in most respects with Biebel that John Doe's name will be disclosed in the report, but saying the report may not disclose any "acts, conduct or testimony" of Doe before the grand jury. Egan and Boyle may challenge that ruling Thursday.

Many of the officers and prosecutors exercised their Fifth Amendment right not to answer any questions when they appeared before the grand jury. Egan and Boyle plan to detail that in their report.

They have a little more work to do before it is finished, they said.