The [Monday] Papers

"Disgraced Chicago Police torturer Jon Burge has had his appeal against a perjury conviction rejected," the Sun-Times reports.

"And the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals noted the 'irony' of the 65-year-old former cop complaining about his conviction - calling him a 'liar' responsible for 'decades of abuse that is unquestionably horrific.'"

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"In a unanimous ruling on Monday, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says no errors were committed by the lower court and that Jon Burge got a fair trial," AP reports.

"Dozens of people - almost all of them black men - claimed for decades that Burge and his officers tortured them into confessing to crimes ranging from armed robbery to murder.

"It was decades before anyone in power in Chicago believed the stories that activists say were common knowledge in the city's poorest neighborhoods."

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"On Friday March 3, 2013, former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley filed his opposition to Chicago police torture survivor Ronald Kitchen's motion for a court order compelling him to sit for a sworn, videotaped deposition," the People's Law Office says.

"This is the latest skirmish in a nine year long legal battle to force Daley to answer about his central role in the police torture scandal and its cover-up.

"This involvement began with his refusal, while the elected State's Attorney of Cook County, to prosecute Jon Burge, the mastermind of a now notorious police torture ring, when damning evidence of Burge's sadistic brutality was first presented to him in 1982; continued on his watch as scores of African American torture survivors were subsequently prosecuted and wrongfully convicted on the basis of tortured confessions; and culminated with his role in the cover-up of the scandal after he became mayor."

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Will Rahm Emanuel and Garry McCarthy plead with Daley to break the no-snitch code?

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Previously: City Settles Burge Torture Case, Avoids Daley Deposition.

"The former mayor has cooperated in all aspects of this case. He was prepared to give his deposition had that been necessary," Daley spokesperson Jackie Heard said in a statement.

Let's just go ahead with these depositions anyway, then.

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"Cover-up is a powerful term," Carol Marin writes for the Sun-Times in another case. "Inflammatory even."

"But the headline of Tim Novak and Chris Fusco's meticulously reported story on Monday leaves little doubt. It read: 'LOST' KOSCHMAN FILES WEREN'T LOST AFTER ALL.

"For more than two years, the Sun-Times has papered the offices of police and prosecutors with Freedom of Information Act requests. Asking for the files that led law enforcement in 2004 and again in 2011 to dismiss the case as a simple matter of self-defense. A case in which Koschman, not Vanecko, was portrayed as the aggressor.

State's Attorney Anita Alvarez's office claimed it could not find a single shred of paper or electronic document even though its top felony review prosecutor was brought into the case. The cops couldn't find critical files either.

"Judge Michael P. Toomin, in appointing Webb last year, derisively dubbed it 'missing file syndrome.'

"Miraculously, after repeated requests from Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson in 2011, some files magically were discovered. And revealed troubling inconsistencies with what CPD had originally claimed. Scratched out - but still readable - were the words "very aggressive" to describe Vanecko. Not Koschman. And a notation was scrawled on the back of another document reading, 'V Dailey Sister Son.'"

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Will Rahm Emanuel and Garry McCarthy plead with the Daley and Vanecko families to break the no-snitch code?

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R.J. Vanecko has refused to speak to police since day one. But Bill Daley says he's "basically a good kid."

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Let's not forget the performance of Megan McDonald.

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They were probably all yukking it up over the weekend celebrating the 10th anniversary of this.

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Richard M. Daley, God's special creature.

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Opening Day
* Letter From St. Louis: Letter From Spring Training
* The Cub Factor: Spite TV
* The White Sox Report: Cold Open To A Mediocre Mystery

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Dunks, Hat Tricks & Big Blue
In SportsMonday.

Bone, Thugs, Brando & Braver
In The Weekend in Chicago Rock.

Handcuffs, Tomahawk & German Beer
In One Dude's Reviews.

First Rahm Came For . . .
Hint: Not the rich.

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The Beachwood Tip Line: Throw the first pitch.

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