No verdict in Burge case

CHICAGO, June 25 (UPI) -- Jurors in the trial of a former Chicago police lieutenant accused of lying about the torture of suspects will continue deliberating Monday.

The jury failed to reach a verdict in the case of former Lt. Jon Burge Friday after seven hours of deliberations, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Burge, 62, faces charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

Federal prosecutors allege he tortured criminal suspects in the 1970s and 1980s, then lied about it in a 2003 civil lawsuit.

In a closing argument, Burge's lawyer, Richard Beuke, said the decorated Vietnam veteran and former city police officer had more credibility than the convicted murderers and gang members who accused him of torture in the in the '70s and '80s, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Federal prosecutors pointed out Burge's accusers' accounts were backed up by testimony of friends, former defense lawyers, doctors and nurses.

Beuke alleged the accusers met in Cook County Jail and invented the abuse claims in part to make money from lawsuits. But prosecutors said the men were not incarcerated simultaneously and had nothing in common but their claims of torture by Burge.

"How is it that of all the police officers involved, on all these cases, they all managed to pick that man as the one who abused them?" Assistant U.S. Attorney April Perry said, pointing to Burge. "He may be well known now, but back then, he was just an ordinary police officer."