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| Feds Probing Illinois Jail Beating |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/31/2003 |
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Federal prosecutors are investigating alleged civil rights violations at the Cook County, Ill., jail after inmates claimed they were beaten by elite jail officers in a February 1999 raid. Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago, on March 20 confirmed that an investigation had been launched into the Cook County Sheriff's Department. According to published reports, 40 members of the jail's elite Special Operations Response Team, clad in riot gear and accompanied by four guard dogs without muzzles, rounded up about 400 inmates on Feb. 24, 1999, ordered them to strip down and then beat some of them. The raid was in response to a gang-related stabbing days earlier. At least 49 inmates told investigators they were beaten, and some were ordered to lie down to be stomped and kicked, the Chicago Tribune reported. After an investigation lasting more than three years, Sheriff Michael Sheahan ordered disciplinary action be taken against eight officers. There was no finding of brutality against any of those disciplined. A spokeswoman said Sheahan's office will cooperate fully with the investigation. Prosecutors were also investigating a July 2000 incident in which five inmates say they were beaten and kicked by officers while they were handcuffed and shackled. Reports of both incidents prompted the jail's former director, Ernesto Velasco, to withdraw earlier this month as the governor's nominee to head the Illinois prison system. After the allegations became known, Sheahan ordered that the elite team's operations be videotaped. He also said cameras would be installed in the maximum-security sections of the jail where the alleged beatings happened. |
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