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Cop charged in plot to kill fellow officer
By David Heinzmann and Todd Lighty
Tribune staff reporters
6:28 PM CDT, September 26, 2007
A Chicago police officer already at the center of a corruption probe has been charged with plotting to hire someone to murder a fellow former police officer, who he believed was cooperating with authorities.
The U.S. attorney unveiled charges today alleging that Jerome A. Finnigan was recorded talking to a fellow officer, now cooperating undercover with federal authorities. The recording allegedly captured Finnigan talking about hiring a street-gang member, or a professional hit man, to kill a former officer he believed was providing information to investigators in the ongoing state and federal probe of the Chicago Police Department's special operations section.
Finnigan, 44, was arrested this morning at his Southwest Side house by FBI agents and was scheduled to appear in federal court at 2 p.m.
Shackled at the feet and dressed in jeans and a faded green sweat shirt, Finnigan appeared briefly in court this afternoon. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cole ordered him held until a bond hearing Monday morning.
In justifying setting the hearing for Monday instead of sooner, prosecutors said they planned to present new evidence and possibly new charges.
In telephone recordings made last week, Finnigan and the cooperating witness discuss whether they should hire a member of a Hispanic street gang or a "professional hit man" to kill the officer, referring to the planned hit as a "paint job."
The recordings also captured the officers talking about the possibility of murdering an additional officer, who they believed was also cooperating with authorities, according to court papers.
Finnigan allegedly had multiple meetings and phone conversations with the cooperating police officer over the last week.
In a recorded conversation last week at Finnigan's home, he said "he wished he had kept a silencer he had for a weapon," according to an FBI affidavit filed in court Wednesday.
Finnigan also allegedly showed the undercover witness a photo of the officer he wanted to kill "which he had cut from a larger photo containing other members of their SOS team," according to the affidavit. He allegedly planned to give the photo to a gang member.
According to the criminal complaint, the officer Finnigan allegedly wanted killed had moved to a new address, but he said that would not be a problem.
"I got the brand-new one," Finnigan said, according to court records. "You know why? [He] sent me a card to his son's graduation party. He sent me the brand-new address. Oh, yeah, dude. I got the new address."
The complaint alleges that Finnigan had been planning to kill the former officer since at least July, and that he told the cooperating witness after an Aug. 7 court hearing that the "paint job" was "all taken care of."
Finnigan's lawyer, Michael Ficaro, declined comment.
Finnigan already faces state charges alleging that he and six other SOS officers robbed and kidnapped people over several years while they were supposed to be combating gang and drug crime in the city's toughest neighborhoods.
The Tribune reported in August that federal prosecutors were joining the Cook County state's attorney's investigation of SOS, and that the probe would also look into the Chicago Police Department's internal affairs division, which was aware of the allegations against Finnigan and several other officers for at least four years but took no action.
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