Rummana Hussain
The Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — He was uncomfortable and made it clear he didn’t want to be there.
But then Michael McDermott backpedaled on whether he told a federal grand jury he had seen Jon Burge press a revolver against a robbery suspect’s head or wrap a plastic typewriter cover over his face.
And he did it while taking the stand against his former Area 2 detective boss.
“At some point I saw that Lt. Burge had something in his hand and it went across the face of the bad guy,” the former detective said of the “shocking” and “inappropriate” conduct inside Burge’s small carpeted office in the fall of 1985.
Monday’s testimony of the reluctant and agitated retired sergeant -- who was once part of Burge’s inner circle and accused of abusing criminal suspects himself -- was crucial, no matter how many times he waffled over previous grand jury testimony or how tight-lipped he was on the scant details he said he could remember from the 25-year-old-incident.
McDermott has been granted immunity from prosecution and is the first officer from the Burge era to testify under oath about any wrongdoing at Area 2. Assuring jurors he was forced to take the stand in Burge’s federal perjury and obstruction of justice trial, McDermott told prosecutors, “My understanding is it [immunity] was forced to make me talk.”
Two years ago before a grand jury, McDermott deduced the immunity was granted because he “witnessed an abusive act by Jon Burge,” according to court testimony.
However, on Monday, McDermott fell short of summarizing Burge’s behavior on Oct. 30, 1985, as “abusive,” stating it was up to the jury to decide.
McDermott said Burge was a respectable boss, a workhorse who drew the ire of lazy detectives and once slept on his desk for five days straight while trying to solve the murders of two fellow officers.
But McDermott also testified that he saw the best of the Area 2 lieutenants falter in a 20-second “scuffle” with suspect Shadeed Mu’min.
On the night in question, McDermott said Burge had taken out his gun, secured it and appeared to have pointed it at Mu’min, who was 10 feet to 12 feet away. He said he couldn’t be sure if the weapon was aimed directly at Mu’min because his “line of sight” made it difficult for him to see.
When Assistant U.S. Attorney April Perry asked McDermott if he then witnessed Burge point the weapon at Mu’min’s head, McDermott bristled, “I never said that. It’s an absolute lie.”
McDermott repeatedly said he never saw Burge place a plastic bag on Mu’min’s head, even though Perry referenced his 2008 grand jury testimony saying otherwise.
During three hours of questioning, McDermott said he had “clarified” his answers to the grand jury and had said he saw Burge’s arm go over Mu’min’s head before he eyed a transparent object in front of the suspect’s face.
“You guys keep on wanting me to say that. No, he [Burge] did not put something over his head,” McDermott told Perry adamantly.
He also told Burge’s attorney Rick Beuke, “That man [Mu’min] never passed out. I never saw anything go on top of his head.”
McDermott said officers often “tussled” with suspects at Area 2, detailing how he once had to push murder suspect Alfonzo Pinex in his chair before he was interrogated. “Do I consider it abuse?
Absolutely not,” McDermott told Beuke, who was trying to show McDermott had lied about torturing Pinex at Pinex’s trial.
McDermott said he’s worried about losing his $60,000-a year pension. And he said he’s expecting to say goodbye to his $54,000 job as a Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office investigator because of his involvement in the Burge case. McDermott was suspended with pay “as soon as his name appeared on the front page of the Sun-Times” relating to the trial last month, he said.
As a state’s attorney investigator sat in the courtroom benches, McDermott testified of the whispered warning he received from U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald before he went to the grand jury.
“By the way, it’s not just perjury. If I think you’re holding back on anything else, it’s obstruction,” McDermott said Fitzgerald told him.
McDermott suggested Fitzgerald was “threatening” his family with insinuations over what he could stand to lose.
“I believed they [prosecutors] weren’t playing fair,” he said.
“You didn’t have a gun pointed at your head?” Perry sarcastically asked McDermott, hinting at the coercion suspects said they faced. “Bad things could happen if you didn’t tell the truth?”
Copyright 2010 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.