Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge is set to report to prison Wednesday and he'll be serving his 4-1/2 year sentence at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex near Raleigh, NC. That's the prison that also houses noted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff. more ›

Michael Wellek, a suburban strip club owner, has been charged with failing to file income tax returns after authorities found $12 million in cash he stashed away. He was sentenced on Friday to a year in prison followed by six months of home confinement after cooperating with the government. Wellek owns Heavenly Bodies in Elk Grove Village, Skybox in Harvey, and Cowboys in Markham. "What I did was wrong," Wellek told U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow moments before she handed down the sentence, according to the Chicago Tribune. "I take full responsibility for my actions, and I am very, very sorry." more ›

John Conroy, whose work detailing the police brutality of former Chicago Police Lieutenant Jon Burge and his underlings for close to two decades at the Reader is one of the best local examples of stellar journalism you'll ever read, was the proverbial fly on the wall as Burge was sentenced last week to 4-1/2 years in prison for perjury and obstruction of justice. Conroy's account of Judge Joan Lefkow's lengthy rebuke of Burge before handing down the sentence can be read at the Better Government Association's website. It makes for a fitting epilogue to what really has become Conroy's life's work. more ›

As was mentioned briefly last night in "Extra Extra," former Chicago Police Lieutenant Jon Burge was sentenced to 4-1/2 years in prison for his perjury and obstruction of justice convictions. the sentence imposed by Judge Joan Lefkow is more than the 15-21 months recommended by the federal probation sentencing board, but a far cry from the 24-30 years prosecutors were allegedly aiming for. more ›

The sentencing hearing for former Chicago Police lieutenant Jon Burge began this morning to a packed courtroom. Over the next two days, victims of Burge's torture tactics while he was at Area 2 Headquarters are expected to offer emotional testimony and ask Judge Joan Lefkow to impose a harsh prison term to the policeman who came to epitomize police brutality in Chicago. more ›

One of the two young men who have been convicted so far in the beating death of Fenger High School student Derrion Albert has been sentenced for his role in the rumble. The unnamed 15-year-old has been sentenced by Juvenile Court Judge Colleen Sheehan to a juvenile detention center until he turns 21. more ›

His wife was oblivious that he was forging her signature to mortgages. He duped Mike North and fired him from their Chicago Sports Webio project when Pappy started asking why checks were bouncing. He went on the run when it was discovered he was running a Ponzi scheme to fund the failed web radio project. Later he pleaded guilty to that Ponzi scheme. Today, David Hernandez was sentenced to sixteen years and eight months in prison for that Ponzi scheme. Hernandez swindled $6.4 million from investors in the Ponzi scheme, which he used for personal use, including starting Chicago Sports Webio. more ›

U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow said today she will not recuse herself before the sentencing of former Chicago police lieutenant Jon Burge. Burge was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice last June for statements he made in a civil case related to extreme interrogation techniques he and other police at Area 2 headquarters used to coerce confessions from suspects. more ›

Based on their calculations, prosecutors could ask for a prison term of anywhere from 24-30 years, far and above the 15 to 21 months recommended by the probation department. Prosecutors aren't showing their hand, only requesting of Judge Joan Lefkow that the sentence be "substantial." Burge was convicted this summer of perjury and obstruction of justice. more ›

We can't even begin to imagine how the family of Andrea Faye Will is feeling after they received the news that Justin Boulay, who was convicted of murdering Will in 1998, is being paroled and leaves prison tomorrow for Hawaii, where his wife is a college professor. more ›

A 23-year-old Northern Illinois man charged with discarding his friend's body in a Chicago alley after injecting him with heroin was sentenced to four years in jail on Friday, Chicago Breaking News reports. more ›

• A jury sentenced Andre Crawford to life in prison, sparing him the death penalty.
• Strange happenings in Austin where a Chicago-bound flight was delayed by a bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax.
• The RTA approved the CTA's 2010 budget, cuts and all, which totals close to $1.3 billion.

The controversial light sentence handed down earlier this year to former alderman Edward "Fast Eddie" Vrdolyak is now coming under scrutiny from an appeals panel. The Tribune reports that a three-member panel from the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals is digging into concerns over the sentence. Vdrolyak, who pleaded guilty to playing a role in a real estate kickback scheme involving property being sold on behalf of Rosalind Franklin University, received a sentence of five years probation and a $50,000 fine from U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur, who defended the sentence by claiming the school suffered no financial loss as a result of the scheme while the school claimed they lost as much as $6 million on the sale. more ›

E2 owners Dwain Kyles and Calvin Hollins were due to be sentenced this morning for their part in the February 2003 stampede that killed 21 people. While Kyles and Hollins have since both been cleared of involuntary manslaughter charges - making this charge the only criminal charge they'll be sentenced for - the [air were found guilty of contempt in housing court in September of this year for refusing to close the club after receiving four notices to do so. We'll update as soon as we hear. [Tribune] more ›

Today's exercise in plausible deniability comes courtesy of Will County Associate Judge Robert Livas. Last year Livas sentenced 24-year-old Darrius Logan to 100 hours of community service stemming from misdemeanor battery and criminal trespass charges in Joliet. In August Logan told Livas he completed the terms of his sentencing by working 100 unpaid hours at Uncle Joe's Jerk Chicken — their three locations at 8211 S. Cottage Grove, 8601 S. Stony Island and 10210 S. Vincennes, for those interested. more ›

Michael "Mario" Pace, 18, the teen found guilty of shooting and killing teen Blair Holt on board a CTA bus in May 2007, has been sentenced to 100 years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated battery. Kevin Jones, who gave Pace the gun used in the shooting, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role. [Sun-Times] more ›

Yesterday, Chicago Police officer Anthony Abbate was sentenced to two years of probation, a forced curfew, anger management classes, alcohol evaluation and 130 hours of community service for the February 2007 beating of bartender Karolina Obrycka which was caught on tape and broadcast around the world. more ›

Christopher Kelly, former fundraiser for ex-governor Rod Blagojevich, will be sentenced today on the first series of charges he's already pleaded guilty to, with two more sets of charges he's already pleaded not-guilty to. Today, Kelly will be sentenced for using work funds to pay off gambling debts and pay for his house and for personal expenses. He's still to face charges related to a roofing deal at O'Hare and racketeering charges with Blago. Federal prosecutors have been hoping they would get cooperation from Kelly in their case against Blago but that has yet to be the case. Estimates for Kelly's sentence on the charges he will be sentence for today range from about three to four years in prison [Fox 32] more ›

Arenda Troutman, former Chicago Alderman of the 20th ward, was sentenced today to four years in prison on mail fraud and tax fraud charges. Troutman was arrested a little over two years ago and was overheard on a wiretap saying, "Well the thing is, most aldermen, most politicians are ho's." Troutman sang a different tune at her sentencing today, saying, "As God as my witness, I am no monster. I am not a criminal and I never helped criminals." more ›

Chicago's most notorious fundraiser, Tony Rezko, has finally been given a sentencing date of January 6. Rezko's lawyers had previously asked for a delay in sentencing while Rezko talked to prosecutors, but Rezko attorney Joseph Duffy said, “He wants to move on with his life. No one likes living at the MCC [Metropolitan Correctional Center].” Rezko remains in solitary confinement, where he's been since his conviction. more ›

Tony Rezko's October 28 sentencing date has been postponed indefinitely by U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve since Rezko is still in talks with the government about cooperating with other federal investigations. A status meeting will occur in December. And for you conspiracy theorists out there: "The sentencing, originally scheduled for Oct. 28, just before the election, was likely to bring unfavorable publicity to Rezko's onetime friend Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama." more ›

The group of anti-war protesters who pulled one of the stupidest moves of the year by disrupting the Easter Sunday service at Holy Name Cathedral were sentenced on Friday. Each was sentenced to: one year probation, 30 days of community service, and ordered to pay $2,600 in restitution. The group also denied they had anything to do with Catholic Schoolgirls Against the War who had originally claimed responsibility. Cook County Judge James B. Linn, who sentenced the group, also had some choice words for the protesters who had shouted and sprayed the congregation with fake blood, calling them "very naive," and then adding:

I find it ironic that in this case that the target you picked out, the people you were disturbing on perhaps their holiest day, trying to express their beliefs, literally trying to communicate with God -- I would guess that the majority of those people were probably of the same mind as you about the Iraq war.