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Mr. Hickey said that he stayed awake at night, feeling paranoid. The verdict was a hard-fought victory for the federal prosecutors and the F.B.I., whose investigation faced setbacks for years. Vinegrad also raised the possibility of the former district attorney, who was vaccinated against COVID-19 becoming infected in prison and then possibly dying. The disbarred lawyer, who will turn 80 next month, also shared a simple wish: "I hope not to die in prison alone," Spota told the judge. Fax Line: 718-254-7508. Former Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota sentenced to 5 years in Mr. Spota and Mr. McPartland sat without expression as the verdict was read. He completed his prison sentence this year but refused to testify at trial against his old colleagues. . [1] Spota resigned November 10, 2017, after he was indicted on federal charges of obstruction of justice in the investigation of Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke. A federal jury on Tuesday convicted former Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota and one of his ex-chief aides, Christopher McPartland, of felony charges related to the attempted cover-up of a. Former Det. Ex-Suffolk Prosecutor Sentenced to 5 Years in Suspect Abuse Scandal In it, Spota raved about Burkes "outstanding leadership" in response to an anonymous letter that had surfaced as selection was underway for a new police chief. The legislation Senator Flanagan sponsors has passed the Senate in both of the past two years but has died in . He earned degrees at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut, and St. John's University School of Law in Jamaica, Queens, New York. He'd been convicted of trying to cover up an assault by former police chief James Burke, Spota's top. Among the successful cases prosecuted by his office was the conviction in May 2017 of John Bittrolff, a Manorville carpenter charged with the homicides of prostitutes Rita Tangredi and Colleen McNamee, whose bodies were found on area South Shore beaches in 1993 and 1994, respectively. [1] Spota and McPartland both resigned from the District Attorneys Office in light of the charges against them and have since been disbarred. "Ive also left them with a shattered legacy and the stain of being a convicted felon," the former district attorney said. Both men had faced up to 20 years behind bars. Spota. Rather, he engaged in a years-long cover-up.. We are a small family-owned operation. Ex-Suffolk officer: Burke ordered officers to spy on Executive Bellone After the assault, Burke ordered high-ranking lieutenants of the SCPD to ensure that the detectives and officers who had witnessed the assault would never reveal what they had observed. This story was reported by Nicole Fuller, Bridget Murphy and Michael O'Keeffe. "We are paying for that corruption today. You rely on us to stay informed, and we depend on you to make our work possible. Have a question about Government Services? The defense teams for Spota and McPartland had lobbied extensively for sentences of home confinement and community service for their clients. Approximately one year later, prosecutors from U.S. Attorneys Long Island Criminal Division reopened the investigation. August 10, 2021 CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) A former Long Island prosecutor was sentenced to 5 years in prison on Tuesday for helping cover up the police beating of a prisoner suspected of stealing sex toys and other items from a police chief's vehicle. Disgraced former Suffolk County DA Thomas Spota landed five years in prison Tuesday for obstructing a federal investigation into a cover-up involving sex toys, assault and a top local police chief. But Azrack said that by participating in the cover-up, both defendants sent the message that prosecutorial power in Suffolk can be abused, civil rights violations will be tolerated and that some people in the county are above the law. Mr. Spota said that if one police officer cooperated, Hell never work here again and I will see to it, according to Mr. Hickeys testimony. The pair face up to 20 years in prison but will likely receive lower sentences due to federal guidelines, according to Newsday. James Burke, center, the former Suffolk County police chief, pleaded guilty in 2016 to the assault of a man who had broken into his police car and the subsequent cover-up. The man in custody, Christopher Loeb, was a heroin user with a long criminal record. He won election after election for 15 years with bipartisan support. "These sentences send the right message to the public that they can have faith in their criminal justice system - that the system is not broken," she said. During a meeting that year, Mr. McPartland speculated about who the rat was. This story has been shared 377,217 times. But he said he didn't realize that there was a corrupt conspiracy operating among those at the highest level of law enforcement. Those who abuse their power and subject others to cruel and unnecessary punishment must be removed from serving in any official capacity and must pay the price for their conduct. Loeb was paid $1.5 million after he filed a federal lawsuit against Suffolk County, a report by 1010wins said. "My family will forever be marked by my disgrace.". Jacquelyn M. Kasulis, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Jacqueline Maguire, Acting Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the sentences. Former Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota and a former top aide, Christopher McPartland, surrendered at separate federal prisons Friday, prison officials told Newsday. Bad Cop, Worse Cop: James Burke and the Overwhelming Stench of But Thomas J. Spota, the district attorney in New Yorks Suffolk County, had an Achilles heel. A four-count indictment was returned this morning by a federal grand jury in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York charging Thomas J. Spota, the Suffolk County District Attorney, and Christopher McPartland, the Chief of Investigations and Chief of the Government Corruption Bureau of the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office (SCDAO), with (1) Conspiracy to . Spota later hired Burke to work in his office as an investigator, promoted him to chief investigator, and vouched for him when he was appointed chief of the police department, one of the largest suburban forces in the country with 2,500 officers. Alek Lewis is a lifelong Riverhead resident and a 2021 graduate of Stony Brook Universitys School of Communication and Journalism. Former Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay a $100,000 fine today after attempting to obstruct a federal investigation into the brutality of a prisoner by former Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke in 2012. Spota: Yes, I met with them. Some were warned that if they admitted wrongdoing, their union would not pay their legal fees, prosecutors said. It was testimony from James Hickey, a retired Suffolk police lieutenant, that formed the heart of the governments case. Senator Flanagan And District Attorney Spota Join Families To Call For Loeb spoke before Tuesdays sentencing, saying, Spota should spend the rest of his life behind bars for all the lives he has ruined.. Burke attacked Loeb in a police station interrogation room after Loeb was arrested for breaking into the ex-chief's unlocked, department-issued GMC Yukon and stealing a bag containing his gun belt, ammunition, a box of cigars and a bag containing sex toys and pornography. CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. He was one of the most powerful men on Long Island, serving as the top prosecutor in a suburban county with 1.5 million people. Mr. Spota, a lawyer for the police union at the time, defended Mr. Burke and negotiated a plea deal that saved his career. Authorities suspect he was stealing from cars to buy heroin. In a rage, Chief Burke kicked and punched him. Former Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota was sentenced to 5 years behind bars. The unfortunate truth is that we will be paying for it for years to come. After hearing four weeks of trial testimony, a federal jury on Long Island found Mr. Spota guilty of four counts, including obstruction of justice and witness tampering. At an August 2015 meeting involving some of the people involved in the alleged cover-up, prosecutors said, McPartland warned that Loeb "did not get beaten badly and there were no marks and that nothing would happen as long as the people that were in the room with (Loeb) did not talk. They have three grown children. He entered private law practice in Suffolk, representing clients including the Suffolk Detectives Association and other law enforcement unions.[7]. Assistant United States Attorneys Nicole Boeckmann, Lara Treinis Gatz, Justina L. Geraci and Michael R. Maffei are in charge of the prosecution. Ex-Suffolk County DA, Aide Denied Bail Pending Appeal: Feds McPartland, 55, will begin his sentence Nov. 10. A corruption saga that began with a prisoners 2012 beating in a police precinct and reached Suffolk Countys highest law enforcement ranks concluded Tuesday with a federal judge sentencing both former District Attorney Thomas Spota and his ex-aide to 5 years in prison. Ex-Suffolk County DA Tom Spota, Aide Sentenced To 5 Years: Feds Without recordings of conversations, the trial hinged largely on the testimony of one witness: James Hickey, a former police commander who worked in Mr. Spotas inner circle. He had been watching the trial from the overflow room. "The verdict today confirms what I said on May 12, 2016 when I stood on the steps of the district attorney's office calling on him to resign that Tom Spota, along with Christopher McPartland, was running a criminal enterprise out of the district attorney's office," Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said in 2019. The assault happened hours after the Smithtown man, then a heroin addict, stole a duffel bag from Burkes department vehicle with items inside it that included Burkes gun belt and ammunition, along with Viagra, sex toys and pornography. His attorney, Larry Krantz, lobbied for leniency for a client he called "an honorable, decent, good man" who had "a brutal fall from grace.". As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Just a few dollars can help us continue to bring this important service to our community. We've received your submission. I met with them before the indictments. They placed fear of retaliation inside the minds of those who may otherwise have been willing to cooperate, and they interfered with efforts of federal investigators who were trying to get to the bottom of a heinous crime. "Loeb had broken into Burkes official police vehicle and stolen his gun belt and ammunition, and a duffel bag containing cigars, sex toys, prescription Viagra and pornography.". A federal grand jury investigation into the Loeb assault as "a civil rightsdeprivation" was opened by the U.S. Attorneys Brooklyn Office, with the assistance of the FBI,in the spring of 2013, the release said. "I hope not to die in prison alone," the 79-year-old Spota told U.S. District Judge Joan Azrack before hearing his penalty, calling his conviction "the lowest point" in his life and saying he feared and expected it would be his legacy. Thomas Spota, the former Suffolk County. Courtesy of Pixabay. Updated. Brooklyn NY 11201, Telephone: 718-254-7000 In the 1990s, an internal investigation found that he had violated several police protocols, including having sex in his patrol car while in uniform with a prostitute who used crack cocaine. The thief took a duffel bag from the car that contained sex toys, a pornographic DVD and Viagra. Spota, 79, will begin his sentence Dec. 10. Ex-prosecutor sentenced to 5 years in suspect abuse scandal - Yahoo News Prosecutors said the two of them, along with other officials, were able to punish people who challenged their authority. Former Suffolk DA James Spota Sentenced To 5 Years In James - CBS News for over a decade, Spota had successfully helped Burke avoid legal trouble regularly during their decades-long friendship. Anthony Leto testified at the trial that Burke punched, kneed and shook Loeb during the beating he also took part in, with Burke also threatening to give Loeb a "hot shot" or deadly drug dose. Additionally, Spota was ordered to pay a $100,000 fine. Jacquelyn M. Kasulis, acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Jacqueline Maguire, acting assistant director-in-charge for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced the sentences. Spota hugged his wife and his weeping daughter before leaving the courtroom in silence. After the assault, Burke ordered high-ranking lieutenants of the SCPD to ensure that the detectives and officers who had witnessed the assault would never reveal whatthey had observed, federal officials said. Their behavior was outrageous, and their sentences today prove as much," said FBI Acting Assistant Director-in-Charge Maguire. The star prosecution witness said during the trial that he began drinking while under extreme pressure to keep his intelligence unit detectives quiet about the Loeb beating. Suffolk District Attorney Timothy Sini reflected on his predecessor's conviction Tuesday in a statement in which he said the agency he leads needs "to remain focused on continuing our progress and ensuring that the days of the past never happen again. The government also claimed McPartland was the "architect of the lies," helping Burke craft a story about Loeb being a "junkie thief" who fabricated his tale of an assault a script everyone who became part of the conspiracy had to follow. Krantz had argued that McPartland already had lost his reputation, life savings and like Spota his law license. He and Mr. Spota each face up to 20 years in prison. Spota and. Former Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota on trial for Loeb had broken into Burkes official police vehicle and stolen his gun belt and ammunition, and a duffel bag containing cigars, sex toys, prescription Viagra and pornography. Burke pleaded guilty in 2016 to the beating and cover-up, serving most of a 46-month prison sentence before his release to a halfway house. McPartland was also part of the pressure campaign to get cops to cover for the chief. In addition to pressuring people not to cooperate, they asked witnesses to provide investigators with false information and withhold relevant information from investigators, federal prosecutors said. A year later prosecutors from U.S. Attorneys Long Island criminal division reopened the investigation. He lived in Mount Sinai, New York, with his wife. The defense attorney also argued that McPartland should get less prison time than Burke because Burke was responsible for the underlying crime. With great power comes great responsibility and, as weve proven throughout the course of this investigation, Mr. Spota and Mr. McPartland abused their power to skirt their responsibility to comply with a federal civil rights investigation. The prosecution told jurors during the trial that Spota was the "CEO" of the conspiracy, while McPartland was the scheme's "chief operating officer" as they broke the law they were supposed to uphold. In December 2012, then-Chief of the SCPD, James Burke the highest-ranking uniformed police official in Suffolk County physically and verbally assaulted a shackled prisoner, Christopher Loeb, who was under arrest and being held in an interrogation room at the 4th Precinct in Hauppauge, New York. Bellone, the Suffolk County Executive, said outside the federal courthouse Tuesday he knew he had inherited a government in crisis when he began serving in his role a decade ago. The survival of local journalism depends on your support. Spota and McPartland helped to ensure witnesses of Burkes crimes using threats against themselves and their families during a U.S. grand jury investigation into Burkes deprivation of Loebs civil rights. Spota, who served as DA for more than a decade before stepping down in 2017, worked to protect Burke by telling detectives who witnessed the assault to stay quiet as the feds probed the incident. [14], The federal inquiry subsequently expanded beyond Burke to investigate a broader pattern of corruption in both the police department and the office of the Suffolk County district attorney, Thomas J. They ruined lives and destroyed careers. Testimony showed Hickey was hospitalized in 2015 after hallucinations brought on by stress and sleep deprivation, after a separate 2013 hospitalization for pancreatitis after excessive alcohol intake. The federal judge said prosecutors have enormous power over life, liberty and reputation, but the defendants substantially abused that power by helping to cover up Loeb's assault, forcing detectives to lie to a grand jury and prosecutors and thwarting a grand jury investigation. In 2001 Republican-turned-Democrat Spota ran for District Attorney, and defeated three-time incumbent James M. Catterson Jr in November 2001, taking 58% of the vote. By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy. The criminal charges hastened Spota's exit from office after 16 years as the top prosecutor in Suffolk County. Loeb spoke to the judge before Spota and McPartland were sentenced. Thomas J. Spota III (born 1941, New York) is a former American attorney and politician, who served as the District Attorney of Suffolk County, New York, serving from 2002 to late 2017, but was disbarred on June 10, 2020. U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack meted out the penalties after a jury previously found Spota and Christopher McPartland, his former anti-corruption chief, tried to conceal that brutality and impede a federal probe to protect then-Police Chief James Burke. I met with the daughter. Ex-Suffolk County DA gets 5 years in prison for assault cover-up ) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. "The verdict today confirms what I said on May 12, 2016 when I stood on the steps of the district attorney's office calling on him to resign that Tom Spota, along with Christopher McPartland, was running a criminal enterprise out of the district attorney's office," Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said in 2019. The former official in Suffolk County was found guilty of conspiracy after a trial that exposed a culture of corruption. ", (The Associated Press contributed to this report), * Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts, Retaining wall collapses in the Bronx due to severe weather, Karl Lagerfeld legacy showcased in Met exhibit. Thomas Spota and one his top aides in the Suffolk County district attorney's office, Christopher McPartland, were convicted in December 2019 on counts of conspiracy, obstruction of justice . 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Thomas J. Spota, the former district attorney in Suffolk County, N.Y., was found guilty on Tuesday of four counts, including obstruction of justice and witness tampering. Police officers who were supposed to investigate gangs and school shootings would be diverted to help their chief with petty vendettas and mundane tasks, like spying on his girlfriends or driving him to the airport, former officers testified. Thomas Spota - Wikipedia Thomas Spota, the longtime district attorney of Suffolk County, Long Island, was accused of conspiring with the county police chief and a top deputy in the DA's office to pressure witnesses to . From December 2010, his office oversaw the investigation of numerous homicides in Suffolk County, believed to have been perpetrated by a single unidentified person, known as the Long Island serial killer, or LISK. All Rights Reserved. Burke physically and verbally assaulted a shackled prisoner, Christopher Loeb, in an interrogation room in Hauppauge after Loeb broke into Burkes police vehicle and stole his gun belt and ammunition, and several personal items including cigars, sex toys and pornography. "Because of their obstructive efforts, the federal investigation was unsuccessful and was closed approximately eight months later. The jury deliberated for nearly a full day before returning the guilty verdict. HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- The families of four victims killed in hit-and-run crashes in Suffolk County called on Albany on Tuesday to enact tougher sentences for drivers who flee the scene. In contrast, the U.S. attorneys office had sought 8-year sentences for both defendants. Some police officers were in the interrogation room when Burke walked in and punched Loeb, prosecutors said. They're guilty," Loeb wrote on Facebook in 2019. Spotas conduct, like Mr. McPartlands, was not a momentary moral lapse. Spota and McPartlands trial became the first time that some of those involved in Loebs assault spoke about it publicly, with two of the three detectives who took part in the beating with Burke testifying about the police brutality and how the pressure to keep quiet later changed their lives and careers. US Eastern District Judge Joan Azrack handed down the 60-month stint behind bars and $100,000 in fines for the 79-year-old Spota aftera jury found the ex-district attorney guiltyof charges ranging from conspiracy to witness-tampering in 2019. Former Long Island Prosecutors Sentenced in Plot to Protect Police I met with the Mrs. Lucero, the mother. The chief barged into the police interrogation room where the man, handcuffed to the floor, called him a pervert. Thomas Spota allegedly conspired with Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke and a top deputy in the DA's office to pressure witnesses to not cooperate with an FBI investigation into the 2012. No other witness testified to receiving direct orders from Mr. Spota or Mr. McPartland to obstruct the investigation, defense lawyers argued. In 2019, a jury convicted Spota, of Mount Sinai, and McPartland, 55, of Northport, of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and acting as accessories to the deprivation of prisoner Christopher Loeb's civil rights. ', Long Island Siblings Saved By Heart Transplants Beat COVID. The verdict came after the jury sat for five weeks listening to evidence, including reports of secret meetings between Spota and McPartland, cell phone tower data, and phone records; Burke previously pleaded guilty and was sentenced, News 12 said.

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