Okay.

So let me give you a question.

Can we revisit uh the um roll call for quorum for the subcommittee on litigation?

Yes, sir.

At your recess commiting, uh we need to add Commissioner Degnan to the role.

Commissioner Laurie, Commissioner Laurie is excused.

Commissioner Marita is present, Commissioner Sean Morrison is present, Commissioner Stamps and Commissioner Trevor.

Uh Commissioner Stamps is now present in the room, so we don't recall, we don't need a remote roll call.

And uh the chairman is present.

You do have a quorum.

Only member absent is excused for Commissioner Laurie.

All right.

Well, we don't need a um remote participation.

So, Madam Secretary, would you announce the public speakers, please?

Right.

Here are our public speakers.

Custom plumber, custom plumber, followed by Joe Eiselbaker.

Then Mark Clements.

If any of you are in the room, please make your way to the public speaking mic.

Mark is here.

Joe is connected.

Joe, I'm waiting for Joe.

Okay, give me a second.

Let me see if he connects.

And I do see Custom Plumber.

So, Mr.

Mark, if you hold on a second.

Joe and Plumber are here.

So Custom Plumber, if you can begin.

Let me remind you of our per um public speaking rules.

Persons authorized to provide public testimony are encouraged to speak to the item.

Um failure to adhere to the time requirements, which is three minutes, um, or failure to adhere to the crime requirements may result in expulsion from the meeting and a disqualify the person from providing future testimony.

We encourage you not to use abusive, discriminatory profane, or otherwise inappropriate language.

If you have provided uh electronic, if you have provided written testimony, they will be part of the electronic meeting record.

Mr.

Plummer, please begin.

Can you hear me, sir?

We can't hear you.

Do you have a mic or volume to turn up?

Yeah, we see your mic is open.

We're gonna come back to you, sir.

Try to um correct that.

Joe Iselbaker.

Yes, can you hear me?

I can, yeah.

Please begin, sir.

All right.

Um, my name's Joe Osbaker, and I'm a member of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

Um, and I'm here uh to speak about uh the um the the topic of in uh engagement of outside counsel.

Um we we recently learned that funding is being provided by the Cook County Board for private law firms which defend uh retired Chicago police department detectives from the John Burge era um in cases involving confessions which were extracted through torture.

The firm that we're speaking about is headed by Miles O'Rourke.

O'Rourke is currently in court defending retired detective Kenneth Boudreau, an infamous CPD area three detective who together with Detective Michael Kill and others followed Burge in the use of torture against mainly young black and Latino men.

Um we learned about this funding from attorneys at the exoneration project, who currently represent Johnny Plummer, Costin's brother, one of Boudreau and Kills survivors.

Boudreau has 70 convictions to his name, where survivors have accused him of torture.

Twenty-eight of those men have since been exonerated for successfully proving that they had been forced into confessions.

Court documents link kill to at least 19 investigations involving severe abuse claims, such as beatings, threats with windows and cigarettes and electro shock.

One minute.

So research done by the exoneration project estimates 11 million dollars has been paid by this board to O'Rourke's firm since 2009 defending Burge era cops.

We appealed to you to end that funding so that the racist torturers have to pay their own legal fees from their own pockets.

30 seconds.