Fired police commander accused of torture

CHICAGO, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Former Chicago police commander Jon Burge invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times Wednesday rather than answer questions about alleged torture.

Burge, 56, who lives in Florida, was ordered to appear in downtown law offices for recorded depositions under oath in two civil rights lawsuits accusing him of torturing confessions out of five plaintiffs.

Civil rights groups say 108 men claim they were victims of torture, electric shock, suffocation or other abuse over the 20 years Burge was a detective, lieutenant and later commander in a predominately black South Side police district, WLS-TV, Chicago, said.

Burge was fired in 1993 and some of the men who gave coerced confessions were later exonerated. Four were pardoned after spending years on death row.

Demonstrators chanting "Enough is enough" marched outside the law offices to demand appointment of a special prosecutor.