Judge refuses to overturn murder convictions of man who claims police torture
A Cook County judge Thursday refused to overturn a Chicago man’s murder convictions, saying the man’s claims of abuse were a “failed attempt to paint himself as a victim” of police torture.
In a forcefully worded 57-page order, Judge William Hooks said George Anderson’s claims that he was kicked, punched and hit with a baton during an interrogation by Area 3 detectives working under disgraced former Cmdr. Jon Burge weren’t backed up by evidence, likening Anderson to a bystander to a bus crash claiming he or she had been aboard the bus to take advantage of “deep pockets.”
“It is different because there are dozens of legitimate African American torture victims of disgraced federal felon Jon Burge and certain of his colleagues,” Hooks said. “Anderson has falsely claimed to have ridden on the Burge torture bus, and he knows it.”
Anderson was found guilty of the murder of 11-year-old Jeremiah Miggins in August 1991 and pleaded guilty to the killing two months earlier of 14-year-old Kathryn Myles. He had given confessions to both murders over the course of interrogations that spanned 36 hours. Anderson’s lawyers said his confessions were the result of beatings at the hands of CPD detectives who have been named in multiple police torture cases and who had histories of soliciting false confessions.
Last year retired CPD Det. Kenneth Boudreau took the stand during a hearing in
Anderson’s post-conviction case and categorically denied he abused Anderson or any other suspect.
Reading from his order Thursday, Hooks said that Anderson had provided no medical evidence to show injuries from the alleged beatings. The ruling by Hooks also lists numerous findings that there was insufficient evidence of abuse of other suspects in other cases cited by Anderson’s lawyers.
Anderson sat impassive, staring at the carpet in front of him, as Hooks read from the order. His attorney, David Owens, meanwhile, leaned over and stroked his forehead, occasionally shaking his head.
Owens vowed to appeal Hooks’ ruling, which he said, misread the evidence in the case.
Owens said Anderson made his claims well before the abuse allegations against Burge and his subordinates were well known.
“George Anderson has been making his claims since 1991 . ... The idea that George Anderson is someone who’s coming on or jumping on the bandwagon after the fact is false,” Owens said. “We look forward to proving it on appeal.”
Hooks in 2018 granted a new trial to Jackie Wilson, who had claimed he was tortured and forced to confess by Burge and Area 2 detectives to the 1982 murders of Chicago Police Officers William Fahey and Richard O’Brien.
Burge was fired from the CPD in 1993. In 2011, he was sentenced to four years in federal prison for lying about the abuse of criminal suspects. Burge died in 2018.