Appeals Denied For Ex-Suffolk County DA Tom Spota, Aide: Feds

LONG ISLAND, NY — The United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, has upheld the convictions of the former Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota and his former principal Deputy Christopher McPartland, federal officials said Friday.

The news comes just days after former Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke, who once led the Gilgo Beach probe, was arrested and charged after soliciting sex from a male undercover agent, police said.

According to John Marzulli, public information officer for the United States Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, both Spota and McPartland, whose appeals were denied, were convicted on charges including conspiracy to tamper with witnesses and obstruct an official proceeding; substantive witness tampering and obstruction of an official proceeding; obstruction of justice; and being accessories after the fact to the deprivation of the civil rights of a victim.

Spota and McPartland were represented by attorneys Alan Vinegrad and Larry Krantz; neither immediately responded to a request for comment.

In August, 2021, Spota, 81, and McPartland, found guilty of obstruction by a jury in 2019— for covering up an incident during which a man was beaten after he stole a duffel bag from Burke filled with sex toys and pornography — were each sentenced to five years in prison, federal officials said.

Spota, of Mount Sinai and McPartland, 57, of Northport, were sentenced by United States District Judge Joan M. Azrack, Spota was also ordered to pay a $100,000 fine, officials said.

The sentences stemmed from the defendants' December 17, 2019 convictions following a six-week federal jury trial; they were convicted on all four counts of the indictment including conspiracy to tamper with witnesses and obstruct an official proceeding; witness tampering; obstruction of justice; and being accessories after-the-fact to Burke's "deprivation of a prisoner's civil rights," the U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of New York said in a release.

In December 2012, then-chief of the SCPD James Burke "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," a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office said. "Loeb had broken into Burke's official police vehicle and stolen his gun belt and ammunition, and a duffle bag containing cigars, sex toys, prescription Viagra and pornography."

Burke was arrested this week at a Suffolk County park and charged with offering a sex act, public lewdness, indecent exposure, and criminal solicitation, fifth degree, with additional potential charges pending, after soliciting a male undercover agent, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said at a press briefing Tuesday. Burk, during the arrest, also said, "Do you know who I am?" and said if the news broke, it would be "a public humiliation," officials said.

After the 2012 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, federal officials said.

Burke also enlisted the help of Spota and McPartland, "to ensure that the witnesses kept quiet. Having served as the Suffolk County DA for over a decade, Spota had successfully helped Burke avoid legal trouble regularly during their decades-long friendship. McPartland, who worked directly under Spota, also had built a close friendship with Burke, and was the first person who Burke called the morning he discovered that his vehicle had been burglarized," the release from the U.S. Attorney's office said.

A federal grand jury investigation into the Loeb assault as "a civil rights deprivation" was opened by the U.S. Attorney's Brooklyn Office, with the assistance of the FBI,in the spring of 2013, the release said.

"Burke, Spota and McPartland used the power and influence of their official positions, and the threat of retaliatory arrest and prosecution, to keep anyone from cooperating with that investigation," federal officials said in the release. "Because of their obstructive efforts, the federal investigation was unsuccessful and was closed approximately eight months later. Local law enforcement eyewitnesses had been frightened into silence, as they feared retaliation against themselves and their families from within the Suffolk County Police Department and the District Attorney's Office."

A year later, prosecutors from U.S. Attorney's Long Island criminal division reopened the investigation.

Burke pleaded guilty to a civil rights violation and conspiracy to obstruct justice in February, 2016 and was sentenced to 46 months' imprisonment; Spota and McPartland both resigned from the District Attorney's Office in light of the charges against them and were disbarred, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The two were sentenced at the courthouse in Central Islip.

Harrison said Tuesday officials were still determing if Burke was still on the parole at the time of his arrest.

Loeb was paid $1.5 million after he filed a federal lawsuit against Suffolk County, a report by 1010wins said.

"Thomas Spota and Christopher McPartland are guilty of ruining the lives of so many other families. They're guilty," Loeb wrote on Facebook in 2019.Both men denied the charges, multiple reports said.

"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 allegations of covert spying, threats made against perceived enemies, relentless intimidation tactics, and outright fear were spelled out clearly by federal prosecutors and I commend them for their outstanding work."

He added that at the time he called for the resignation: "Tom Spota's power was at its peak and their criminal enterprise was in full swing. This culture of corruption has had a real and profound impact. They ruined lives and destroyed careers."

Bellone said at the time that then-Suffolk District Attorney Tim Sini has "restored integrity to the office."

In 2016, Bellone publicly called on Spota to step down with claims that Spota was "operating a criminal enterprise that must be stopped."

"The actions of these defendants represent the worst of law enforcement," said Sini at the time. "Their conduct has devastated many people individually, deprived Suffolk residents of what they deserve from public officials, and was a disservice to all the honest, hardworking men and women of law enforcement. . .We need to remain focused on continuing our progress and ensuring that the days of the past never happen again."

"With great power comes great responsibility – and, as we've proven throughout the course of this investigation, Mr. Spota and Mr. McPartland abused their power to skirt the irresponsibility to comply with a federal civil rights investigation," said FBI Acting Assistant Director-in-Charge Maguire.