Appeals court affirms convictions of ex-Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota and top aide Christopher McPartland

A federal appeals court on Friday rejected requests from former Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota and his top aide to overturn their 2019 convictions of conspiracy and obstruction of justice for orchestrating a cover-up of the beating of a handcuffed prisoner in a Suffolk County police precinct in 2012.

Federal prosecutors said during their trial that Spota and Christopher McPartland, the former chief of the Government Corruption Bureau, orchestrated the cover-up of the 2012 assault of prisoner Christopher Loeb by former Suffolk Police Chief of Department James Burke. The jury found both men guilty in December 2019 and U.S. District Judge Joan Azrack sentenced them to five years each in prison in August 2021. 

Attorneys for Spota and McPartland argued in their appeals that Azrack had improperly admitted testimony from Suffolk police detectives who said they feared retaliation if they did not participate in the cover-up or cooperated with federal investigators. Spota’s attorney Alan Vinegrad and McPartland’s attorney Larry Krantz argued that the testimony was irrelevant and inflammatory. 

But a panel of judges for the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that although the testimony from four witnesses was “needlessly cumulative and unfairly prejudicial” and should have been excluded, the errors were inconsequential, given the other "strong" evidence presented at the trial. 

“Because we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the evidence of the officers’ fear of retaliation, that any error in admitting the evidence relating to Burke was harmless, and that Spota and McPartland’s other arguments are without merit, we affirm the judgment of the district court,” Chief Judge Debra Ann Livingston wrote for the three-judge panel in a decision released Friday.

John Marzulli, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, declined to comment on the decision. Larry Krantz, McPartland’s attorney, also declined to comment. Spota’s attorney Alan Vinegrad did not return calls for comment.

Burke was indicted in December 2015 on charges of obstruction of justice and violating Loeb's rights and then orchestrating a cover-up with Spota and McPartland. 

Suffolk police arrested Loeb, then a heroin addict, in December 2012 after he allegedly stole a duffel bag containing a gun belt, ammunition, sex toys and pornography from Burke’s unmarked police car, which had been parked in front of Burke’s St. James home. 

Three Suffolk detectives — Kenneth Bombace, Anthony Leto and Michael Malone — cursed and slapped Loeb at the Fourth Precinct to get Loeb to confess. Burke then “fiercely punched, kicked, kneed and screamed at Loeb, stopping only when the other officers intervened,” Livingston wrote. 

Burke resigned as chief in 2015 and pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and violating Loeb’s civil rights in 2016. He was sentenced to 46 months in prison. 

The appeals court decision comes two days after Burke was arrested in Farmingville during a sting by Suffolk County park rangers investigating complaints about sex solicitation at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Burke has been charged with indecent exposure and public lewdness. 

The detectives who participated in the assault of Loeb and other witnesses testified in vivid and often shocking detail at the joint trial of Spota and McPartland, who were convicted of conspiracy, witness tampering and obstruction of justice for their roles in the cover-up. 

Spota, Burke and McPartland — the most powerful law-enforcement officials in the county — called themselves “The Administration” and threatened perceived enemies with demotions and career-ending false criminal charges, prosecutors argued during their trial. 

A federal jury in Central Islip found them guilty in December 2019 of 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 Loeb's civil rights.

Spota, 81, of Miller Place, is serving his sentence at the Danbury Correctional Institution in Connecticut. McPartland, 57, of Northport, is incarcerated at the Beaumont Low Security Correctional Institution in Texas.

The appeal from Spota and McPartland also challenged Azrack’s decision to deny their request to have the government’s pretrial bill of particulars, a formal statement of charges and claims. In their summation, prosecutors argued that a June 5, 2013 meeting attended by Burke, Spota, McPartland, former Suffolk Chief of Detectives William Madigan and Emily Constant, former chief district attorney, was evidence of a cover-up. The bill of particulars did not list Constant as a co-conspirator.

The appeals court panel ruled that prosecutors were not inconsistent in their description of Constant and affirmed Azrack’s decision not to introduce the bill of particulars. 

The panel also affirmed Azrack’s decision to deny a request by McPartland for a new trial or an evidentiary hearing to determine if one witness, ex-Lt. James Hickey, lied during critical parts of his testimony.