Sentencing postponed for ex-Chicago officer Burge

[November 06, 2010]  CHICAGO (AP) -- The sentencing of a former Chicago police lieutenant convicted of lying about the torture of suspects has been postponed.

Jon Burge was originally slated to be sentenced Friday, but a federal judge has reset the date to Jan. 20.

A jury convicted Burge in June of perjury and obstruction of justice. He's been free on bond since the five-week trial.

The 62-year-old decorated former officer faces a maximum of 45 years in prison.

Burge and the men under his command were accused of shocking, suffocating and burning suspects into giving confessions.

More than 100 victims have said the torture started in the 1970s and persisted until the 1990s at police stations on the city's South and West sides.

[Associated Press]

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