EX-COP GETS NEARLY 5 YEARS FOR DRUG DEALING

When former Chicago police officer John Galligan needed help paying the
bills for his criminal defense attorney, more than 1,000 people showed up
at the fund-raiser.

But Galligan's loyalty to friends, which inspired such a turnout, also
proved his undoing, prosecutors said Friday as Galligan was sentenced to
nearly five years in prison for helping his longtime partner, a notoriously
corrupt cop.

"I stand before this court ashamed, humiliated," Galligan told U.S.
District Judge Blanche Manning on Friday. The former gang crimes specialist
and Vietnam War veteran apologized for bringing discredit to "the Chicago
Police Department, the City of Chicago, family, friends."

Galligan, 52, with about 100 police department honorable mentions to his
credit, was the partner of Joseph Miedzianowski, who was convicted last
year of running a cocaine ring with a street gang.

Miedzianowski faces life in prison when he is sentenced in June.

Galligan's actions provide "a great example of someone who refuses to cross
the blue line" of silence, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Lausch said.

"It's a blind loyalty he had," Lausch said of Galligan. "He was not Joe
Miedzianowski, but without people like John Galligan with their blind
loyalty, people like Joe Miedzianowski could not exist."

Galligan pleaded guilty in November to giving an informant three grams of
crack in the parking lot at the Maxwell Street police station in 1998.

Manning sentenced him to 57 months behind bars, the maximum allowed.

In an unrelated case Friday, two former Chicago police officers pleaded
guilty to violating a defendant's civil rights by lying about evidence
against people who had been arrested.

Matthew Craig, 39, faces a year in prison, while Xavier Castro, 52, is
expected to be sentenced to two years behind bars, Assistant U.S. Attorney
David Hoffman said. The men lied about the circumstances of one or more
drug arrests they took part in.

Both men pleaded guilty to misdemeanors but agreed never to own a firearm
again or work as cops anywhere.