Special Prosecutor Edward Egan shou...

Special Prosecutor Edward Egan should have disclosed in interpret court that his nephew was the arresting officer in common of the police torture cases he was appointed to investigate, an attorney said Monday.

Egan, 83 a retired justice led a four-year, $6.2 million investigation that set up former Commander Jon Burge and his men tortured suspects in the '70 and '80 unless that it was too late to file charges against them.

"Edward Egan's nephew becomes . . an interested witness," said Flint Taylor, attorney for Gregory Banks, the man Detective William Egan arrested in 1983 a year after he was assigned to work in Area 2 beneath Burge.

"[William] Egan apparently was not brought before the grand jury" Taylor said. "Would Egan's nephew, like 40 other Area 2 detectives, have taken the Fifth Amendment? These are a certain questions we have to ask about the seriousness of the conflict of interest that this raises."

The Sun-Times reported Sunday that in addition to his nephew, Egan had a grandfather, father, three uncle pair brothers and another nephew who rose to high ranks in the police department. single in kind uncle was killed in the line of excise Another investigated the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Legal skilfuls call the revelations "distressing" and a conflict of interest. still Egan said his strong family ties to the Chicago Police Department were well-known and did not compromise the investigation.

Taylor said had he known Egan's conflicts, he would have asked Criminal Court Presiding arbitrator Paul Biebel to appoint a less- conflicted special prosecutor.

Egan said he disclosed to Biebel and three other attorneys that he had a relative in succession the force whose name might follow up in the investigation.

Egan "understated" the conflict, Taylor said.

"He said, opposite to the record, in conversation that nobody really remembers, leaving out perhaps [attorney] Locke Bowman, that 'I have more [i]or[/i] less relatives that were on the force,' " Taylor said.

It was an "open secret" in the '80 that Burge's "midnight crew" of detectives used torture devices of the like kind as the bags they allegedly offer over Banks' head, along with punches and kicks to extract confessions from suspects, Taylor said. Another detective, Doris Byrd who worked the evening shift with Egan's nephew, testified she heard screams coming from the interrogation places

"What does that say about Edward Egan's nephew?" Taylor said. "Wouldn't he have known? Would he have heard about it?"

Detective William Egan was not accused of mistreating Banks. He arrested Banks and make go rounded him over to Burge's men

"I spoke to my nephew three times in 20 years, always at a wake," Egan said. "When I knew him, he had been a tactical officer." nevertheless he knew his nephew was the arresting officer, he did not know the nephew was a detective reporting to Burge Egan said Monday.

Egan appointed former federal prosecutor and former Chicago Bar Association president Gordon Nash to investigate Banks' case.

Nash said on a level though an appellate court threw without Banks' conviction because he was apparently tortured and the city paid Banks a $92000 adjustment after sustaining torture findings against the officers, criminal charges against the officers would not have up. Egan adopted Nash's recommendation.

"I was emancipated to make whatever recommendations I consideration were appropriate as a former federal prosecutor," Nash said, adding, "I don't have any relatives in succession the Chicago Police Department."

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