Former Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas J. Spota and his top chief aide, Christopher McPartland, were found guilty Tuesday on felony charges related to their attempt to cover up the beating of a prisoner by the disgraced Suffolk police chief James Burke in 2012.
On the morning of the second day of deliberation, a federal jury returned a guilty verdict on all four counts: conspiracy to tamper with witnesses and obstruct an official proceeding, witness tampering, obstruction of justice, and acting as accessories-after-the-fact to the former police chief. The verdict, handed down in Federal District Judge Joan M. Azrack's courtroom in Central Islip, followed a six-week trial, which aired piles of dirty laundry among the top brass that once ruled the county.
Mr. Spota, 78, and Mr. McPartland, 54, who led the county's anticorruption bureau, each face up to 20 years in prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set; they remain free on $500,000 bonds.
“When a sitting district attorney and the chief of the Government Corruption Bureau attempt to obstruct a federal grand jury investigation, it is nothing short of an attack on the justice system itself, and it will not be tolerated by the Justice Department," said Richard P. Donoghue, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. "As prosecutors, the defendants were obligated to support the law they enforce, but the criminal actions taken by these men made a mockery of that obligation. Thankfully, the rule of law has prevailed, and the defendants now must face the consequences of their actions, just like any other defendant who has broken the law.”
“Today they are reminded that positions of power come with a great responsibility to respect both the law and public trust. Any abuse of this privilege will be prosecuted to the fullest extent," said the F.B.I.’s assistant director in charge of the case, William F. Sweeney Jr.
Mr. Spota, with bipartisan support, served Suffolk County for 15 years. Mr. McPartland led the D.A.'s anticorruption unit, including, in 2009, an investigation into fiscal wrongdoing in the Town of East Hampton that led to the indictment of a former budget officer and the resignation of William McGintee, the town supervisor.
The jury found that Mr. Spota and Mr. McPartland had obstructed a federal investigation into an assault on the prisoner Christopher Loeb, in order to protect Mr. Burke, then the chief of police, and to pressure their underlings to keep quiet.
Mr. Loeb, a heroin addict with a long criminal history, was charged on Dec. 14, 2012, with breaking into Mr. Burke's department-issued vehicle and stealing his gun belt and ammunition, as well as a duffel bag said to hold sex toys, a pornographic video, cigars, and a bottle of Viagra. He was taken to the county’s fourth precinct in Hauppauge, where a furious Mr. Burke and other members of the department assaulted him while he was handcuffed and shackled to the floor.
The evidence presented at trial consisted of police and D.A. documents and records, "voluminous telephone records," cell site records, and testimony from 30 witnesses -– but, the defense attorneys emphasized, no taped conversations.
One witness was James Hickey, a retired county police lieutenant who supervised the department's criminal intelligence unit, which Mr. Burke referred to as his "palace guards." Three detectives from the unit took part in the assault on Mr. Loeb.
Over a three-day period, Mr. Hickey testified that Mr. Burke told him that the detectives “did themselves proud,” they “beat the hell” out of Loeb, and it was “just like the good old days.”
According to federal prosecutors, Mr. Hickey and several other cooperating witnesses, who were given immunity, maintained that both Mr. Spota and Mr. McPartland had intimidated witnesses, using threats to pressure them to “withhold information, refuse to cooperate with law enforcement, and lie under oath in order to thwart the federal investigation of the Loeb assault."
Mr. Loeb’s case was handled by the D.A.'s government corruption bureau, then supervised by Mr. McPartland, in what prosecutors called an attempt to control the flow of information and cover up the assault.
In February 2013, Mr. Loeb’s attorney charged that her client had been assaulted. Mr. Hickey testified that Mr. McPartland advised him to “keep the guys quiet and tight … it’s imperative we keep Jimmy [Burke] out of jail, so we needed to keep the guys quiet and in line.” He also said under oath that Mr. Spota often asked, “Are they holding up?” and “Are they toeing the line?”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the F. B.I. began an investigation into the assault in April 2013. By late June, members of the Suffolk County Police Department were served with federal grand jury subpoenas.
Mr. McPartland instructed Mr. Hickey, according to his testimony, to gather information about what was said by the F.B.I. agents who served the subpoenas and who was cooperating.
While the initial investigation was derailed because of intimidation, prosecutors said, the federal investigation was reopened later. By mid-2015, Mr. Spota and Mr. McPartland found out that the government was now looking into obstruction of justice and witness-tampering.
"The defendants reacted swiftly to obstruct it," the federal prosecutor's office said. "Mr. Hickey testified that at a meeting with the defendants in Spota’s office on June 4, 2015, Spota asked him, 'Who do you think has flipped?’ They discussed which detective may have been a ‘rat,’ and Mr. Spota allegedly said, 'If he talks, he’s dead. He will never work in Suffolk County again.' "
A federal grand jury indicted Mr. Burke in December 2015, and he pleaded guilty two months later to charges of obstructing civil rights and conspiracy to obstruct justice. He was sentenced to 46 months in prison in November 2016 and served most it before he was released to home confinement last year. He did not testify at trial.
Alan Vinegrad, Mr. Spota's attorney, and Larry H. Krantz, Mr. McPartland's, challenged Mr. Hickey's credibility and inconsistencies in testimony. Mr. Hickey, who was hospitalized for stress-induced delirium in 2015, has pleaded guilty for his role in the conspiracy.
Mr. Vinegrad told the jury his client had every opportunity to squash the case, but did not. "Wanting to help James Burke is not a crime," he said during a summation, Newsday reported. "Being a concerned professional parent and believing your professional child is not a crime."
Mr. Vinegrad and Mr. Spota left the Central Islip courtroom on Tuesday without comment. Mr. Krantz told reporters, "There are many more legal steps in the case, and we will continue to fight for this."
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said in a statement Tuesday that he has directed the county attorney to review all legal options for recovering Mr. Spota and Mr. McPartland's salary and benefits "in light of the facts that have now been established through this trial."
“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 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," Mr. Bellone added. “Tom Spota, along with Christopher McPartland, was running a criminal enterprise out of the District Attorney’s office."
Mr. Spota was indicted on the federal charges in October 2017, and announced he would resign the next month, which he did. He already had said he would not run for re-election. Timothy D. Sini, a Democrat, was elected in his place and took over at the start of 2018.
Mr. Bellone said that Mr. Sini "has restored integrity" to the office Mr. Spota once held. "We are also fortunate to have an outstanding police commissioner who previously headed the F.B.I.’s Long Island office. With today’s verdict, we continue on our path to reform criminal justice in Suffolk County."
Geraldine Hart, the police commissioner, stated that Tuesday's verdict "sends a clear message that no one is above the law."
"All of us in law enforcement take an oath to uphold the Constitution and serve, not our own self interests, but rather our communities’. As we learned, the very people charged with upholding the law were the ones who were found guilty of assisting James Burke in his attempt to get away with his crime. Instead of being leaders and standing up for justice, they did their best to manipulate the system and everyone who stood in their way."
She assured the public that the police department's current leadership was committed to integrity, honesty, and professionalism. Ms. Hart also noted that her department has been in contact with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District, and they are reviewing all the testimony and evidence and "will take appropriate action if warranted."
Ultimately, it was Mr. Spota’s and Mr. McPartland’s relationship with Mr. Burke that led to their downfall. The three men golfed together and drank together, calling themselves "the administration," one former county police officer testified. As for Mr. Spota and Mr. Burke's friendship, it went back 40 years, when Mr. Spota, then an assistant D.A. prosecuting the murder of John Pius, a Smithtown boy who died after teenagers crammed rocks down his throat, met a teenaged Mr. Burke, who became his star witness.
