It seems as if Jerome Finnigan lived a double life.
On the one hand, Finnigan, 48, has been described as a cop who helped get guns and drugs off the streets of Chicago. On the other, he's admitted to perpetrating crimes not unlike any other common street thug.
In April, he pleaded guilty to ordering a hit on another police officer and a tax charge. On Thursday, Finnigan received 12 years during a sentencing hearing.
"The judge sentenced him to according to what she thought was fair. Of course we would have like it a little less, but she did what she thought was fair, and that's all there is to it. It's over," said Finnigan's attorney, Marc Barnett.
Finnigan was once part of Chicago's elite Special Operations Section, a unit which focused on narcotics dealers.
But while he was trying to rid the city of drugs, he also admitted to playing a role in five robberies, netting him about $200,000, and led a crew that ransacked homes and shook down people who came in his path, according to the Sun-Times.
The scandal brought down Finnigan and other officers caught in the scandal, and the SOS unit has since been disbanded.
"I think what Mr. Finnigan fails to understand and what other police officers who act the same way fail to understand is that when you don't follow the law, when you treat citizens the way they treat citizens, it impacts the community's trust in the police department, and if the police department doesn't have the trust of its community it can't do its job," said Assistant State's Attorney Brian Netols.
Finnigan has been held in a federal lockup in downtown Chicago since his arrest in 2007.
