Chicago settles with torture victims

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CHICAGO, July 23 (UPI) -- Two more Chicago-area men, victims of police torture, will share a $7.17 million settlement after the Chicago City Council agreed to the payments Monday.

Michael Tillman, who confessed to a 1986 murder and rape after he was tortured by police during the investigation and spent 23 years in prison before being declared innocent, will receive $5.37 million. David Fauntleroy, against whom charges in a 1983 double murder were dropped in 2009, will receive $1.8 million, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Monday.

The cases are among 11 allegations of police torture committed under the watch of former police Cmdr. Jon Burge, who is serving a 4 1/2-year term in federal prison for lying about torture and abuse of suspects, the Chicago Tribune said Monday.

In 2008 the City Council approved a $19.8 million settlement with four alleged torture victims, and five cases remain unsettled, the Chicago Sun-Times said, noting in Tillman's case, former Mayor Richard M. Daley was named as a defendant. Daley served as Cook County state's attorney from 1981 to 1989 and as mayor after that. With the settlement, Daley will not be required to offer a deposition.