By Rummana Hussain
The Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — A former Chicago Police detective said Wednesday that decades ago he heard screams emanating from the old Area 2 headquarters shortly after the arrest of a man who later accused disgraced former Cmdr. Jon Burge of torturing him.
The former detective also said he saw another one of Burge’s alleged victims covered in footprints while in police custody in the early 1980s.
“I could hear someone screaming -- like for help. They sounded like they were deep in distress, “Sammy W. Lacey testified at Burge’s federal trial Wednesday, attempting to bolster prosecutors’ case and abuse claims raised by the now deceased convicted cop killer Andrew Wilson.
Burge has pleaded not guilty to obstruction of justice and perjury. He’s accused of lying when he denied in a civil lawsuit that he and other detectives had tortured anyone.
Lacey, an attorney who worked under Burge, said he was walking into the building before heading to church when the cries rang out that February morning in 1982. Lacey had been aware some arrests were made in connection to the days-old murders of Officers William Fahey and Richard O’Brien and decided to see what the commotion was.
Once on the second floor, Lacey spotted a “somewhat shocked or dismayed” man sitting on the floor with his hands handcuffed behind him. The man wasn’t doubled up in pain, and had no visible injuries, but when Lacey said he saw him on the news, paraded before the cameras that night, the suspect, Wilson, was “haggard” and covered with bandages and blood.
A year later, Lacey said he saw murder suspect Gregory Banks go from having a “clean,” wound-free body to having footprints stamped all over his “chest, stomach, leg and groin area.”
Banks, who is expected to testify today, was convicted of the 1983 murder of Leon Barkan, but the conviction was thrown out in appellate court, and Banks was awarded a $92,000 settlement from the city.
During cross-examination, Burge’s attorney Rick Beuke tried chiseling away at Lacey’s credibility and self-description as a “pretty good police officer” by pointing out that Lacey didn’t do his job during the Fahey and O’Brien investigation when he failed to find a witness who had information about the case. While Burge worked to solve his comrades’ murders for five days straight without going home, Lacey was receiving clearance on time due, Beuke said.
Beuke also asked Lacey whether members of the press were present when Wilson allegedly screamed. Lacey said he did notice Area 2 was swarming with “news people,” including broadcast reporter Jay Levine, before he went upstairs to where Wilson was being interrogated.
Earlier Wednesday, an Indianapolis woman whose sister dated Burge said the disgraced former commander once boasted to her about how fellow officers threw a man in a car trunk and beat another suspect with a bat or stick.
“He thought it was funny, and he was acting arrogant,” Darlene C. Lopez said, recounting the tales Burge told her and others aboard his boat roughly 30 years ago.
Copyright 2010 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.