Original charges against James Burke’s accuser dropped

The original charges against Christopher Loeb, the man whose beating by Suffolk Police Chief James Burke led to the chief’s conviction and the indictments of District Attorney Thomas Spota and one of his top aides, were dismissed for good Wednesday by a Suffolk judge.

State Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro ruled that “the deliberate and pervasive tactics employed by the police in this case” made it impossible for the 2012 charges that led to Burke’s and Spota’s downfalls to stand. Ambro not only dismissed the 2012 indictment against Loeb but barred prosecutors from charging him ever again with those crimes.

Loeb, a heroin user at the time, was charged then with breaking in to a number of cars near his mother’s St. James home, including a police vehicle used by Burke. Loeb took a duffel bag from that vehicle that he said contained cigars, sex toys and “nasty pornography.”

After Loeb’s arrest, Burke later admitted that he beat Loeb and threatened to kill him. Yet during the grand jury presentation that resulted in Loeb’s indictment, detectives said Loeb confessed “freely and voluntarily.” Detectives said the same thing during a pretrial hearing that led to Loeb pleading guilty.

After the federal investigation of Burke showed that he and detectives lied and covered up the beating, Ambro threw out Loeb’s guilty plea. But special prosecutor William Ferris of Islandia — appointed because of Spota’s connections to Burke — said Loeb should be retried on the original indictment.

Ambro ruled that could not happen because the grand jury testimony was so tainted, a violation of the “spirit and letter” of the law.

The move came the day after Loeb pleaded not guilty to new charges of breaking into cars, including his mother’s.

Loeb was arrested Monday on charges in connection with the break-in of a car, theft of a purse and credit cards and theft of his mother’s car, police said Tuesday. He faces charges of fourth-degree grand larceny, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, possession of a hypodermic instrument and unauthorized use of a vehicle.

Defense attorney Bruce Barket of Garden City praised Ambro’s decision and said that now that his client is free of a corrupt prosecution, he can deal with his addiction problems.

“Maybe now he can have the freedom to address some of his deeper problems,” Barket said.

Ferris said disagreed “strongly with the court’s decision,” and would review his options on how to handle it.

Even if Loeb had been convicted of the original charges against him, he could not be sentenced to any additional time in prison beyond the 3 years he served after his guilty plea.

He is in jail now on $25,000 bail for the new charges.

Spota and Christopher McPartland, who runs the political corruption unit, were indicted on federal charges that they were involved in a cover-up of Burke’s assault of a Loeb in 2012. Each faces four counts: conspiracy to tamper with witnesses and obstruct an official proceeding; witness tampering and obstruction of an official proceeding; obstruction of justice; and accessory after the fact to the deprivation of civil rights, according to the indictment. They pleaded not guilty to the charges.