Yesterday, Judge Clayton Crane surprised a Cook County courtroom by paving the way for former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge to testify about the beating inflicted on Cortez Brown during a 1990 murder investigation. This would mark the first time in more than a decade that the embattled Burge would appear in open court.Locke Bowman, Legal Director of the Roderick MacArthur Justice Center and attorney for Cortez Brown, will now seek supoenas for Burge and former Detective Tony Maslanka in their home states so they can testify at an upcoming hearing on Brown's wrongful conviction.
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In 1990, Brown was arrested for the murders of Devin Boelter and Curtis Sims. Brown alleges that Area 3 police detectives John O’Brien, John Paladino and Tony Maslanka—all of whom worked directly under Burge –verbally threatened him and beat him repeatedly with fists and a flashlight until he agreed to submit a bogus confession to the crimes.
At trials for both murders, Brown’s coerced confessions were the principal evidence used to tie him to the alleged crimes. And in both cases, the larger pattern of atrocities that Burge inflicted on other black suspects was not revealed. Burge is currently under federal indictment for perjury and obstruction of justice based on his sworn denials that suspects were abused and tortured. Brown finished serving the 30 year sentence imposed on him for one of the murders, but seeks release from his natural life sentence for the second.
(photo from Huffingtonpost.com)
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