Emanuel favors settling police torture lawsuits

Mayor Rahm Emanuel says he’s working toward settling a series of civil lawsuits filed over decades-old allegations of torture by Chicago police.

“I know we can settle — and we’re working towards that,” Emanuel told the Chicago Sun-Times for a story published Tuesday (http://bit.ly/oQaj4E ). “Settlement is a possibility.”

At least six lawsuits are pending that accuse former Chicago Police Lt. Jon Burge or his officers of beating, kicking and shocking suspects — almost all of them black or Latino— into giving confessions from the 1970s to the 1990s.

Burge was convicted last year of lying about whether he’d ever seen or participated in torture. He’s serving a 4½-year sentence at Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina.

Attorneys say 15 men with torture claims against Burge or his officers are still incarcerated, and several others have been released from prison and exonerated.

Burge-related cases have cost the city an estimated $43 million and counting, including a nearly $20 million settlement for four alleged torture victims. The lawsuits typically name Burge, the city and the police department, among others, and taxpayers are funding the defense.

The city’s law department has said an appeals court ruling mandates that Burge’s legal fees be covered because he was working for the city when the alleged misconduct occurred.

Burge was fired from the police department in 1993 over the 1982 beating and burning of Andrew Wilson, a suspect later convicted of killing two police officers. Burge has never faced criminal charges for abuse.

Emanuel said he’s looking at building the city’s future, not settling its past.

“How old is this now — 30 years old? ... It is time we end it,” he said.