CHICAGO — A federal judge has sentenced a former Chicago police officer to 4 1/2 years in prison for lying about the torture of suspects.
Former police commander Jon Burge’s name has become synonymous with police brutality in the nation’s third-largest city.
He was sentenced Friday after two days of often-emotional testimony during the sentencing phase of the case.
Several torture victims told Judge Joan Lefkow that they remain haunted decades later.
But character witnesses for Burge called the 63-year-old an exemplary officer wrongly portrayed as a monster.
Prosecutors had argued Burge’s perjury and obstruction of justice convictions merited more than 30 years in prison. The defense asked for less than three years.
The Chicago Police Department fired Burge in 1993 for mistreating a suspect.