The Illinois Supreme Court Tuesday denied a request by a man who testified before a special grand jury investigating claims of police brutality to keep a forthcoming report on the claims from becoming public.
The decision by the full court paves the way for special prosecutors to release the report, which has cost more than $7 million and taken four years. The report investigated allegations that former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge and other officers used torture to force confessions from more than 200 suspects.
Criminal Court Presiding Judge Paul Biebel Jr. set a June 30 status date on the matter.
Attorneys had asked the Supreme Court to bar the release of any information relating to their client, a former assistant Cook County state’s attorney listed in court papers as “John Doe” since he had been called as a witness before the special prosecutors’ grand jury. He had asked the court to exclude any information in the document regarding his client.
The man’s lawyer, Ralph Meczyk, said Tuesday’s ruling means the report will be issued. Though he could not elaborate on what his client said to the grand jury because it is under seal, Meczyk does not believe it will help bolster the report.
“It’s the final hurdle so it is the end of the road,” he said. “What’s going to be put in the report is irrelevant; it has nothing to do whatsoever with the investigation.”
Special Prosecutor Edward Egan said the report, which he estimated is 250 pages, would be released in the next two weeks or so.
“I couldn’t see how the [Supreme] Court could do anything other than what they did,” Egan said.
The report, he said, will include excerpts from former Chicago police Supt. Richard Brzeczek’s grand jury testimony as well as the steps the special prosecutors had to take to get testimony from police officers and a former assistant state’s attorney.
The Chicago Police Board fired Burge in 1993 on charges he tortured a murder suspect.
The police brutality investigation faced hurdles from the beginning, including statute-of-limitations issues and the apparent need to persuade officers to testify against their colleagues.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Flint Taylor, who has investigated the torture charges for more than a decade, said he welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision and said it was not unexpected.
“I think it would be a surprise if any court suppressed the public release of a report we have been waiting 35 years for,” Taylor said.
He said that even if there are no indictments of Burge or others, he believes the federal court would have jurisdiction to look into the allegations.
Community activist Wallace “Gator” Bradley welcomed the decision of the state’s highest court and said that the African-American community has been waiting for decades for answers to charges of systematic torture of suspects.
———-
csadovi@tribune.com
smmills@tribune.com
