Burge, Blago Trials Back Underway

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Jun 14, 2010 2:20PM

After a few days off, the trials of former police commander Jon Burge and former governor Rod Blagojevich pick back up this morning. In the Burge case, former detective Michael McDermott may testify today for the prosecution when it's expected he'll detail seeing Burge torture a suspect into a confession by using a typewriter cover to suffocate him. While the jury has heard from three alleged victims and the transcript of a now-deceased fourth victim, McDermott is the first detective to testify that he witnessed Burge and his "Midnight Crew" physically torture suspects, in this case the October 1985 torture of robbery suspect Shadeed Mu'min; Mu'min is also expected to testify for the prosecution who expect to wrap up their case soon.

The Blago trial also reconvenes this morning, picking up where it left off last week with the continuing testimony of Lon Monk, former close friend and chief-of-staff to the ex-gov. But over the weekend the big story had to do with words from dismissed jurors, including one who told the Sun-Times that members of the potential jury pool violated Judge Zagel's order to not discuss news of the trial amongst themselves. The Trib's Eric Zorn discusses the trial as "the blockbuster local trial of the Twitter Age" and the Daniel Lisbit, covering the trial for the Chicago News Cooperative, looks into how local law schools will be using the trial for teaching purposes.