Both the Tribune and the Sun-Times reported on Friday, December 7, that four police torture victims under the infamous Jon Burge regime reached a collective $20 million settlement with the city.

However, it was also revealed in a subsequent newswire post that "[a]ttorneys for both sides in the four police torture cases were pledged to secrecy about the tentative settlement until it was to be broached before the City's Finance Committee on Monday. But in typical City of Chicago fashion, the story was "accidentally" leaked on Friday afternoon -– apparently by City attorneys — assuring that the news would be caught up in a "dead" news cycle just before the weekend."

Despite the settlement and the "burial" of the settlement story, the Burge controversy rages on. Dozens of unjust police torture cases remain without restitution, and those implicated in such torture remain unprosecuted.

Additional Resources: Police Torture in Chicago: The Chicago Reader's John Conroy Archive | Human Rights at Home: The Chicago Police Torture Archive | Summary of Amnesty International's Concerns on Police Abuse in Chicago