Former Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas J. Spota and
Christopher McPartland, the former Chief of Investigations and Chief of the
Government Corruption Bureau of the
Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office (SCDAO), were convicted today by a
federal jury in Central Islip, New York, of all four counts of the indictment
charging them with conspiracy to tamper with witnesses and obstruct an official
proceeding, witness tampering, obstruction of justice, and being accessories
after-the-fact to former Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD) Chief of
Department James Burke’s deprivation of a prisoner’s civil rights. The verdict followed a six-week trial before
United States District Judge Joan M. Azrack.
When sentenced, Spota and McPartland each face up to 20 years’
imprisonment.
Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern
District of New York, and William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant
Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office
(FBI), announced the verdicts.
“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. 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,” stated United States Attorney
Donoghue.
“Spota and McPartland violated the law by obstructing a
federal investigation into the assault on an individual’s civil rights,” stated
FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Sweeney. “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.”
As proven at trial, Spota and McPartland, the top
prosecutors in Suffolk County, abused their leadership positions and authority
within the SCDAO to obstruct and attempt to obstruct the FBI and federal grand
juries investigating the assault of a SCPD prisoner, Christopher Loeb, in order
to protect then-Chief Burke. On December
14, 2012, Loeb was arrested on larceny charges, among other offenses, in
connection with his burglarizing Burke’s department-issued vehicle and stealing
Burke’s gun belt and ammunition, as well as a duffel bag containing cigars, sex
toys, a pornographic video and a bottle of Viagra. Loeb was transported to the Fourth Precinct
in Hauppauge, New York, where he was assaulted by Burke and other members of
the SCPD, while handcuffed and shackled to the floor.
The evidence at trial consisted of SCPD and SCDAO documents
and records, voluminous telephone records, cell site records and testimony from
30 witnesses, including multiple cooperating witnesses. One such witness was James Hickey, a retired
SCPD Lieutenant who was part of the “Inner Circle” that included Spota,
McPartland and Burke. Hickey and several
other cooperating and immunized witnesses detailed the defendants’ use of
intimidation and threats to pressure witnesses to withhold information, refuse
to cooperate with law enforcement, and lie under oath in order to thwart the
federal investigation of the Loeb assault.
Hickey supervised the SCPD’s elite Criminal Intelligence Unit, which
Burke referred to as his “Palace Guards.”
Three detectives from this unit participated with Burke in the assault
of Loeb. Hickey testified that Burke
told him the Intel guys “did themselves proud,” they “beat the hell” out of
Loeb, and it was “just like the good old days.”
Loeb’s case was handled by the SCDAO’s Government Corruption
Bureau, supervised by McPartland, although the charges would not typically be
handled by that bureau, in an attempt to control the flow of information and
cover-up the assault. In February 2013,
after Loeb’s attorney disclosed that her client had been assaulted at the
Fourth Precinct, Hickey testified that 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.”
Hickey testified that Spota regularly pressured him to keep the Intel
detectives quiet by repeatedly inquiring – “Are they holding up?” “Are they towing the line?” – conveying the
message that they should refuse to cooperate with the federal investigation
and, if necessary, lie to protect Burke.
In April 2013, the United States Attorney’s Office for the
Eastern District of New York and the FBI initiated a federal grand jury
investigation into the assault of Loeb.
On June 25, 2013, FBI Special Agents served members of the
SCPD with federal grand jury subpoenas.
That same day, defendants Spota and McPartland learned of the existence
of the federal investigation. McPartland
instructed Hickey to debrief his Intel detectives and learn what was said by
the FBI agents serving the subpoenas, and find out who might be cooperating
with them. However, because of the
threats and intimidation, none of the Intel detectives cooperated with the
investigation, and it was closed eight months later, in December 2013. Through the efforts of the defendants and
Burke, the initial grand jury investigation of Burke’s civil rights violation
was successfully derailed.
In or about mid-2015, Spota and McPartland learned that the
federal investigation had been reopened, and that its scope had expanded to
include an investigation of the obstruction of justice and witness tampering
offenses. The defendants reacted swiftly
to obstruct it. 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?” In
discussing which of the detectives might be a “rat,” cooperating with federal
investigators, Spota said about one of the likely cooperators, “If he talks,
he’s dead. He will never work in Suffolk
County again.” In that same meeting,
McPartland told Hickey to pass along a message to the Intel detectives,
threatening them with prosecution if they cooperated with the investigation.
The defendants’ efforts to thwart the grand jury
investigations ultimately failed. In
early December 2015, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of New York
indicted Burke. Burke pleaded guilty
approximately two months later, admitting to his involvement in both the
deprivation of Loeb’s civil rights and the conspiracy to obstruct justice. In November 2016, he was sentenced to 46
months’ in prison.
The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Long
Island Criminal Division. Assistant
United States Attorneys Nicole Boeckmann, Lara Treinis Gatz, Justina L. Geraci
and Michael R. Maffei are in charge of the prosecution, and were assisted by
Assistant United States Attorney John Durham and Investigator William Hessle.
The Defendants:
THOMAS J. SPOTA
Age: 78
Mount Sinai, New York
CHRISTOPHER McPARTLAND
Age: 54
Northport, New York
E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 17-CR-587 (JMA)
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