U.S. v. Burge

Record contained sufficient evidence to support defendant’s conviction on charge of obstruction of justice arising out of defendant’s false responses to interrogatories in civil action indicating that, in his role as police officer, he had never used and never was aware of other officers using various forms of torture and physical abuse when interrogating suspects, where multiple individuals testified that defendant over period of decades had beaten, suffocated, electrocuted and held their bodies against radiator while attempting to extract statements from suspects. Fact that conduct that formed basis of instant obstruction charges under 18 USC section 1512(c)(2) did not occur in presence of court did not require different result. Moreover, Dist. Ct. properly excluded evidence regarding merits of underlying civil action (i.e., that alleged tortured victim subsequently admitted to cellmate that he was guilty of his charged offense) since relevant issue was only whether defendant had lied when giving instant responses to interrogatories. Also, defendant’s false responses were material where core issue in underlying civil action was whether Chicago Police Dept. had policy or practice of torturing suspects.