Retired Chicago Cops subpoenaed, alleged torture probe into Burge ramping up

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Retired detectives named in a decades-old Chicago Police torture scandal have been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury -- a clear sign a criminal investigation into former Cmdr. Jon Burge and others is ramping up, sources said today.

Five to 10 detectives received subpoenas last week to appear June 19 before the grand jury. The probe is headed by Sergio Acosta, civil rights coordinator in the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago, the sources said.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office declined to comment, but pointed to a statement U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald made last September announcing his office is engaged in a criminal investigation into the matter.

In January, the city approved a nearly $20 million settlement with four former Death Row inmates who claimed Burge and more than 20 officers who worked with him in the 1970s and 1980s coerced murder confessions from them.

A special Cook County prosecutor investigated the torture claims, but in a controversial final report found Burge and other detectives could not face criminal charges in state court because the statute of limitations expired.

Federal investigators stepped in. They are focused on sworn statements Burge and other detectives made in 2003.

If they can show those statements are false, authorities could charge the retired officers with obstruction of justice, sources said. The federal statute of limitations does not expire until November — five years after the sworn statements were made, the sources said.

Would you want to live in a city where these sorts of police officers own guns but you can't because gun are banned?