By Police1 Staff
CHICAGO — Former Chicago police commander Jon Burge will continue to receive his $3,000 per month pension, a police board vote determined Thursday morning.
Burge was sentenced last week to 4 ½ years in prison after being convicted for perjury and obstruction of justice in his torture case.
Critics called the decision to allow him to receive his pension “outrageous,” according to the Chicago Sun Times, but board member Mike Shields said it boiled down toe “Illinois pension code and case law.”
He told the Sun Times: “Jon Burge had no law enforcement duties at the time he was alleged to have committed his crimes of perjury on an interrogatory in civil deposition.”
As reported in a previous Police1 article, Burge apologized for tarnishing the Chicago Police Department’s name, but asked that the judge show him mercy.
“I will be the first to admit I’m not a perfect person,” he said. “I’m not the person portrayed in the media by the plaintiffs’ attorneys.”
Burge denied accusations that he is a racist and said that some of his closest friends in the department were African Americans.
Mark A. Clements, a national organizer for the Jail Jon Burge Coalition, told the Sun Times the ruling “is a prime example of how the City of Chicago protects misconduct by some of its officials.”