State's Attorney candidates promise tough stand on corruption

Who can best root out corruption in police departments, government and even within the state's attorney's office itself was the theme of the Cook County state's attorney's candidate forum Thursday night.

Seven candidates -- six Democrats and one Republican -- took their turn before the Cook County Bar Association and other groups explaining why they'd do the best job at restoring trust to a law enforcement establishment that has been hamstrung by wrongful prosecutions, tortured confessions in Chicago, corrupt cops and a mistrusting public.

Tony Peraica, the lone Republican and a Cook County Board commissioner from Riverside, said he's most up for the task because, as a Republican, he'd break the stranglehold of the "one-party system" in Cook County.

Bob Milan, Glenview resident and the current state's attorney first chair, pointed out he's already indicted and prosecuted 150 police officers in his career.

Howard Brookins, a Chicago alderman, said he served both as a prosecutor and a public defender, and as a public defender he learned you can find out which cops are perjuring themselves through cross-referencing police reports. He says he'd go after not only cops, but also state's attorneys who look the other way when police abuse suspects. Assistant state's attorneys "stood still and did nothing … as the people screamed in agony (inside) the interrogation rooms" under former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge, said Brookins. Burge likely tortured suspects into confessions, a special prosecutor found.

Tommy Brewer, a private attorney from Evanston who once served as a gang crimes prosecutor and who recently assisted with the Burge investigation, said he thinks the office already does a pretty good job of indicting and prosecuting cops who are on the take, but doesn't do enough to go after those who perjure themselves on the stand to get a conviction. "I think the police officers who come to court and lie, that's a crime; that's as much of a crime as those who steal," said Brewer.

Anita Alvarez, a River Forest resident who now serves as the No. 3 person in the state's attorney's office, said she'd try to hire more department investigators, especially those skilled in financial investigations, because money lies at the heart of many police corruption cases.

Tom Allen, a Chicago alderman, said he'd go after people like Burge and Pam Fish, a crime lab scientist accused of falsifying testimony to get convictions. But Allen, in answering another question about whether someone who wasn't a career prosecutor could handle the job of state's attorney, said he thought they could, pointing out that current Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley was a state senator when he ran for state's attorney.

"He did a heck of a job," said Allen. Allen did not address, however, that it was Daley who was state's attorney when Burge was accused of conducting his torture. A doctor reported numerous injuries to a suspect at the hands of police to Daley's office, and he is accused of looking the other way. Daley has said he handed the matter off to a subordinate as was appropriate.

Larry Suffredin, an Evanston Democrat who is currently a Cook County Board member, said he would form a special strike force for public corruption, and have it headed up by a former FBI agent or other federal agent who's less likely to be beholden to county politics.

The primary between the six Democrats is Feb. 5. Peraica is unchallenged after his opponent, Ed Barron, was disqualified over petition signatures, although he is appealing the ruling. Barron was not at the forum.