Identifying victims of
Burge police torture
DELAYED JUSTICE
W
hen Cook County
Criminal Division
Judge Paul P.
Biebel Jr. needed
a neutral legal professional with a
background in criminal law to help
identify inmates who may have
suffered physical torture at the
hands of former Chicago police
commander Jon Burge, he turned
to Dean David Yellen.
Burge was convicted in 2010—
not for the police torture of more
than 200 criminal suspects between
1972 and 1991, as the statute of
limitations on the claims of abuse had
passed, but for obstruction of justice
and perjury for lying about his role in
the torture. Allegations against Burge
contributed to former governor
George Ryan’s 2000 decision to
declare a moratorium on Illinois
executions. Burge was fired in
1993 after the Chicago Police Board
ruled that he had used torture.
Burge was finally convicted five
years ago after then-United States
attorney for the Northern District
of Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald charged
him for providing false written
answers in a 2003 civil lawsuit that
claimed he and other officers had
abused inmates.
In March 2014, Biebel tapped
Yellen to serve as special master to
sift through hundreds of current
prison inmates’ requests for post-
conviction review.
Assisted by seven Loyola law
students—Jarrett Adams, Shamoyita
Dasgupta, Kathryn Huber, Steven
Monroy, Prya Murad, Kelcy Whitaker,
and Jessica Wolf—Yellen’s job was not
to determine the validity of inmates’
claims that their confessions were
forced by torture. Instead, “We’re
looking to identify inmates who meet
the criteria Judge Biebel has set forth,”
Yellen explained. “First, they must have
been in the custody of Commander
Burge or people working directly
under him. They must have given a
statement while in custody that was
used against them in their criminal
case. They must have alleged at the
time of their original case that they
had been tortured. Finally, they may
not have had post-conviction review
with the assistance of counsel since the
official acknowledgement of Burge’s
abuse of suspects.”
Yellen’s team has identified
approximately 30 people who meet
most or all of the criteria. From this
group, Biebel has appointed counsel
for post-conviction proceedings in
about a dozen cases; up to another
dozen will obtain counsel in the
coming months.
“Lots of people who claimed police
misconduct aren’t covered by these
specific criteria, so this is by no means
an exhaustive list of police misconduct
in Chicago,”Yellen says. A few cases that
didn’t qualify for the present review
jumped out as excellent candidates for
legal counsel, however, “and for those,
we made referrals to attorneys who
might help,” he says.
Having students help with the
winnowing process made it possible
to complete the task in a reasonable
amount of time while giving the
lawyers-to-be a solid experiential
learning project.
“I couldn’t have begun to sort
through 500 letters from inmates
and dozens of court files without
the integral assistance of these
students,”Yellen says. “It’s been a
great experience for them; all had
at least some background in criminal
law, but for most of them, it’s been a
much deeper dive into how criminal
cases work.”
For Adams, the issue of wrongful
conviction is deeply familiar. He spent
10 years behind bars for a rape he
didn’t commit. When he graduates
this summer, he will start a fellowship
with Ann Claire Williams, judge for the
Seventh Circuit US Court of Appeals—
the same court in which Adams’s own
conviction was overturned.
“It’s been great to be part of an
unbiased entity that gives people
who may have suffered injustices the
opportunity to get their cases looked
at again,” Adams says. “Investigating
these cases—reading the letters, going
through the records, putting the nuts
and bolts together—has just reinforced
what I want to do.”
Of his own experience, Yellen
adds, “I’m honored that Judge Biebel
thought I was the appropriate person
to do this, and I’ve been proud to play
a small role in putting this terrible
chapter behind us.”
■
3L Jarrett Adams (left) and Dean David Yellen examine files regarding possible torture
victims of former Chicago police commander Jon Burge.
LEGAL BRIEFS
F
or the last 25 years, Associate
Dean for Administration James
Faught (JD ’76) has volunteered his
time on the board of a program of
“lawyers helping lawyers.”
The Illinois Lawyers’ Assistance
Program (LAP) is a not-for-profit
organization that helps in-state
lawyers, judges, law students, and
their families with alcohol abuse, drug
dependency, gambling, stress, and
other mental health issues, including
anxiety and grief.
An estimated 10–20 percent of
Illinois attorneys and judges suffer
from some form of addiction or mental
illness. Every year, the LAP is able to
help about 300 of them. The program
offers 12-step meetings, one-on-
one counseling sessions, education,
interventions, and referrals.
Created in 1980 through a
joint effort by the Illinois State
Bar Association and the Chicago
Bar Association, the LAP protects
individuals as well as the integrity
of the profession. Its mission is
threefold: To protect the public from
impaired lawyers and judges; to
aid lawyers, judges, and law students
in getting help; and to educate the
legal community about addiction
and mental health issues.
Faught primarily helps the LAP
with strategic planning, programming,
training, and education. These tasks
include helping teach lawyers
who want to know more about
addiction and may want to become
trained interveners. Loyola law
alums Judge Daniel Kubasiak (JD ’81)
and Julio Argueta (JD ’00) perform
interventions, as does Judge Michael
Caldwell (JD ’63), who was also one
of the founding members.
“These issues touch all of us.
In our profession, we’re all likely to
know someone with these types of
problems, including law students,” says
Faught, who is a 36-year veteran of
the School of Law. “The LAP is in the
business of saving lives, families, and
careers. It’s just such a powerful thing
to see in action.”
■
Lawyers helping lawyers
EXTENDING A HAND
F
or the second year in a row, Dean
David Yellen has been named one
of the “25 most influential people in
legal education” by the
National Jurist
.
In the publication’s January 2015 issue,
Yellen jumped from 17th to fifth on
the list of those named.
The
National Jurist
calls Yellen an
innovator for his leadership role in the
national dialogue addressing today’s
challenges facing legal education
and offering ways to improve the
state of legal education. He served
on the ABA Task Force on the Future
of Legal Education and the ABA
Legal Education Standards Review
Committee, where he played a critical
role in drafting new rules requiring law
schools to provide more information
about employment outcomes. In 2014,
he served as chair of the ABA New
Deans Workshop and was appointed
to the Illinois State Bar Association
Task Force on the Impact of Law
School Curriculum and Debt on the
Future of the Profession.
■
Yellen
a top25
leader
James Faught (JD ’76)
Jackie Taylor Holsten (JD ’99)
T O L E A R N M O R E , V I S I T :
W W W . I L L I N O I S L A P . O R G
Alumni honored
Loyola’s Black Law Students
Association (BLSA) honored Jackie
Taylor Holsten (JD ’99) with the
Donald L. Hollowell Distinguished
Service Award and Cynthia Cornelius
(JD ’12) with the Norman C. Amaker
Award of Excellence at the 2015
BLSA Alumni Awards Celebration
in April. Cindy Tsai (JD ’07) was
also recognized this spring by
Loyola’s Asian Pacific American
Law Students Association for her
many contributions to the School
of Law, the legal profession, and
the community. The award was
presented to Tsai by the Honorable
Judge Young B. Kim (JD ’91) at a
special reception in March.
■
2
LOYOLA LAW
SPRING 2015
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