State High Court Ruling Lets Burge Can Keep Pension

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jul 3, 2014 6:00PM

Disgraced former Chicago Police Lt. Jon Burge gets to keep his police pension after the Illinois Supreme Court upheld a Cook County Judge’s ruling claiming Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan didn’t have the legal authority to challenge a split vote by the Police Pension Board in 2011 that prevented Burge from losing his pension. Burge’s supporters on the pension board, all police officers, ruled that since his conviction came after he retired

Justice Anne Burke wrote in the Court’s majority opinion.

“What the Attorney General is seeking then, through the filing of her complaint, is the authority to contest every administrative decision made by the Board, however limited in scope or effect, and to do so outside the confines of the Administrative Review Law. This would be a fundamental change in the workings of the Pension Code.

"This opinion should not be read, in any way, as diminishing the seriousness of Burge’s actions while a supervisor at Area Two, or the seriousness of police misconduct in general. As noted, the question in this appeal is limited solely to who decides whether a police officer’s pension benefits should be terminated when he commits a felony. On this issue, the legislative intent is clear. The decision lies within the exclusive, original jurisdiction of the Board under (the law).”

Burge is serving a 4-1/2 year prison term for lying under oath about the systemic torture practices he spearheaded at Area 2 Police headquarters. He was never brought up on charges of torturing people as the statute of limitations long expired. Yet critics of Burge have long argued his perjury conviction, where he lied under oath about torturing criminal suspects, should serve as grounds for being stripped of his pension.

Madigan’s office released a statement proclaiming her displeasure with the ruling. “This will result in the police pension board’s vote to allow a torturer and convicted felon to receive his taxpayer-funded pension,” Madigan said.

The Court’s majority opinion stressed the seriousness of the torture allegations against Burge.

“This opinion should not be read, in any way, as diminishing the seriousness of Burge’s actions while a supervisor at Area Two, or the seriousness of police misconduct in general. As noted, the question in this appeal is limited solely to who decides whether a police officer’s pension benefits should be terminated when he commits a felony,” the court wrote. “On this issue, the legislative intent is clear. The decision lies within the exclusive, original jurisdiction of the Board under section 5-189. Accordingly, the judgment of the appellate court is reversed and the judgment of the circuit court dismissing the Attorney General’s complaint is affirmed.”