Christopher McPartland, former top aide to Thomas Spota, released from prison

Christopher McPartland, the former top aide to ex-Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota, has been released from a federal prison in Texas two years into his five-year sentence for conspiring to cover up ex-Suffolk Police Chief James Burke’s beating of a handcuffed prisoner, a federal official confirmed Friday.

McPartland, 58, of Northport, a now-disbarred lawyer who once ran the government corruption bureau of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office, was transferred Dec. 5 from the low-security Federal Correctional Institution Beaumont in Texas to the Brooklyn Residential Reentry Management Office, a halfway house, said Donald Murphy, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Murphy said McPartland has been placed on community confinement, which assigns him to either home confinement or placement in the halfway house, until his projected release this May from custody. Murphy declined to specify whether McPartland was still in the halfway house or had been released to home confinement, citing BOP policy.

“For privacy, safety, and security reasons we do not discuss any incarcerated individual’s conditions of confinement, reasons for transfer, or specific release plans,” Murphy said in an email.

It’s unclear why McPartland was released early, though federal prisoners serving sentences of more than a year are statutorily given 15% sentence reductions for good behavior. And the Trump-era First Step Act has allowed nonviolent prisoners to earn credit toward early release. Federal prisoners also can typically serve three to six months of their sentence in a halfway house.

McPartland’s attorney Larry Krantz declined to comment Friday.

McPartland, who was working at a liquor store making $16 an hour before he reported to prison, could not be reached.

John Marzulli, a spokesman for prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York, declined to comment on McPartland’s early release.

McPartland and Spota were both convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and acting as accessories to the deprivation of prisoner Christopher Loeb's civil rights at their 2019 trial. The jury found that McPartland and Spota conspired to cover up Loeb’s beating that then-Suffolk Police Chief James Burke carried out with three detectives. The assault inside a Suffolk police precinct happened after Loeb, then a drug addict, broke into Burke’s vehicle and stole items that included his gun belt, Viagra, pornography and sex toys. Both McPartland and Spota were sentenced to five years in prison.

Prosecutors called Spota the "CEO" of the conspiracy, while McPartland was the scheme's "chief operating officer" and "architect of the lies," who helped Burke craft a cover story about Loeb being a "junkie thief."

Burke served most of a 46-month prison sentence before his release to a halfway house after pleading guilty in 2016 to conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and the deprivation of Loeb’s rights. Burke was arrested again in September and charged with public lewdness and indecent exposure for allegedly exposing himself to an undercover Suffolk County park ranger. His lawyer has been engaged in plea talks with prosecutors.

Spota and McPartland both reported to their separate prison assignments on Dec. 10, 2021, after exhausting repeated attempts to remain free on bail while pursuing their appeals. A federal appeals court affirmed their convictions in August.

Prosecutors had asked the court to sentence McPartland and Spota to eight years each in prison, citing the “egregiousness” of their conduct given their positions of authority in the law enforcement community.

Spota, 82, is still incarcerated at a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, according to the BOP. His projected release date is May 2, 2025.

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.