Burge foes target Daley
They seek to add mayor to police brutality suit
Lawyers with the MacArthur Justice Center and the People's Law Office want to add Daley and former Mayor Jane Byrne as defendants in a lawsuit filed on behalf of reputed El Rukn gang member Darrell Cannon. A judge must approve their request.
Cannon claimed detectives working under former Area 2 Cmdr. Burge put a gun to his head and shocked his testicles to get him to confess to a 1983 murder. Lawyers say authorities should have recognized that Cannon's claims of abuse at the time were strikingly similar to that of another suspect -- Andrew Wilson. Burge was eventually fired because of claims brought by Wilson.
Last summer, a special prosecutor's report found evidence of torture within the Police Department in the '70s and '80s. At the time, Daley said he was willing to "apologize to anyone" for the torture of suspects by Burge.
"Daley said he'd apologize and make good," Cannon lawyer Flint Taylor said. "We have found after these many months . . . the mayor chose to do nothing." In 2004, a prisoner review board found Cannon's story of torture "fairly credible." But the board still denied his release from prison, saying they weren't convinced of his innocence. Cannon has a separate conviction for a 1971 murder.
The lawsuit claims that Daley, Byrne, along with State's Attorney Dick Devine, knew about a pattern of police abuse but failed to do anything about it.
"[Daley] did nothing to stop it. He turned a blind eye," Another Cannon lawyer, Locke Bowman, said. "It was a gross dereliction of duty."
Daley said he wasn't concerned about his potential involvement in the lawsuit. "Mayors get sued every day. Myself, Harold Washington, Gene Sawyer, Jane Byrne -- all of us historically have all been sued."
Contributing: Fran Spielman