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City Accepting Torture Reparation Applications Through Early August

CHICAGO (CBS) -- City officials have begun taking applications from former criminal defendants seeking financial reparations for torture by police from the 1970s through the early 1990s, but advocates for torture victims said they doubt many additional credible cases will be found.

The city's Law Department has said it will take applications for restitution from a $5.5 million fund established by the City Council through August 4.

People's Law Office attorney Joey Mogul said, over the years, her agency and special prosecutors have identified about 120 men – mostly African-American – who were tortured during police interrogations in what's now known as the Jon Burge era. While the city is taking applications from defendants outside that group, Mogul -- co-founder of the Chicago Torture Justice Memorials -- said applicants cannot simply claim torture to get restitution from the city.

"Someone would have to be able to show or demonstrate that they, in fact, were tortured or physically abused by Burge and his men. So they're going to have to come up with some evidence to demonstrate that this occurred during Burge's reign of terror," she said.

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Victims also would need police reports and proof they complained to their lawyers at the time.

An independent arbitrator would make the final decision on all disputed torture claims. Only victims that have not received a previous settlement from the city will receive reparations from the fund.

The reparations package provides up to $100,000 in restitution per victim, and also includes a number of services for torture victims and their families – including free job training and tuition at the City Colleges of Chicago; and psychological, family, substance abuse, and other counseling.

The city already has spent more than $20 million defending Burge, his detectives, and former Mayor Richard M. Daley against lawsuits stemming from torture allegations. The city also has spent approximately $100 million to settle lawsuits stemming from police torture committed by Burge and his detectives in the 1970s and 1980s.

Burge, a former commander at Area Two on the South Side, was fired from the Chicago Police Department in 1993. He was never prosecuted for acts of torture, but in 2010 he was tried and convicted for lying under oath about torture. He was sentenced to 4 ½ years in prison, and spent more than three years behind bars, before finishing the final months of his sentence in a Florida halfway house. He was released from federal custody in February.

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