Ex-Chicago cop with cancer wins trial delay

Jon Burge faces trial on perjury, obstruction charges in torture investigation

Former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge, recently diagnosed with prostate cancer, has won a third delay of his trial, over a prosecutor’s objections.

Burge was diagnosed with “high risk” prostate cancer, according to his lawyers, who say his radiation treatments would have interfered with his scheduled January trial.

In federal court this morning in Chicago, U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow agreed to push back the start of the trial to next May 10, despite Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Miller’s pleas that the judge instead push up the trial forward — to Nov. 30.

“If you come back and say you can’t do it, I’m going to scrutinize that pretty carefully,” Lefkow warned Burge’s lawyers.

It’s the third time since his arrest last year that Burge has sought a postponement of his trail on perjury and obstruction of justice charges, which previously had been set for last spring, and then for this October.

Burge’s lawyers said it was “nonsense” to suggest he’s using his illness to postpone his case. Burge, who lives in Apollo Beach, Fla., will be undergoing radiation treatment during the month of January, according to medical records filed Wednesday.

Testing for the prostate cancer was dated in September, they said.

“I would have loved a Christmas jury with a cancer patient,” Burge attorney Marc Martin, said after today’s hearing. “That’s a combination for an acquittal.”

Burge, 61, who has long faced allegations that suspects were tortured into confessing by investigators under his command, was criminally charged last year with perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with the investigation of the accusations.

Attorney Flint Taylor, who for years has pushed for Burge’s prosecution, questioned the delays. “It makes one wonder if their motivation is to avoid trial altogether and never give the victims of torture a day in court,” Taylor said Wednesday.