Out of prison, ex-Suffolk DA Thomas Spota working as administrative clerk at law firm

Then-Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota walks from federal court in Central Islip Oct. 25, 2017 after being indicted on federal charges in a cover-up of former Suffolk Police Chief James Burke’s assault of a suspect in 2012. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
Former Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota, released from federal prison last year following his 2019 conviction for covering up the beating of a handcuffed prisoner, is working as an administrative clerk at a Hauppauge law firm.
Attorney Anthony LaPinta, who was a member of Spota's defense team, has been supervising Spota, 83, of Mount Sinai, as part of his work release sentence since August, LaPinta said in an email. Spota in July was transferred from the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury to "community confinement," Newsday reported.
"Mr. Spota has been under my direct supervision as an administrative clerk in my law office during his work-release designation and current supervised release sentence," LaPinta wrote in response to Newsday on Tuesday. The former district attorney has been "working exclusively for me since August of 2024 and will continue to do so for the duration of his supervised release sentence."
Spota works 10 to 15 hours a week as a "nonlawyer administrative clerk," LaPinta said. Spota was disbarred — forbidden from practicing law — in 2020 following his conviction.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- Former Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota, released from federal prison last year, is working as an administrative clerk at a Hauppauge law firm.
- Attorney Anthony LaPinta, who was a member of Spota's defense team, has been supervising Spota, 83, of Mount Sinai, as part of his work-release sentence since August, LaPinta said.
- Spota works 10 to 15 hours a week as a "nonlawyer administrative clerk." LaPinta said. Spota was disbarred in 2020 following his conviction.
Spota did not respond to a request for comment communicated to LaPinta.
LaPinta, a respected criminal defense attorney and former counsel to the Suffolk County Democratic Committee and a LIPA trustee, in May formed a new law firm, LaPinta, Lesko & Miskiewicz P.C, as he transitions from his former firm, Reynolds, Caronia, Gianelli & La Pinta.
LaPinta emphasized his new law partners, former federal prosecutors Mark Lesko and James Miskiewicz, "are not involved in any aspect of Mr. Spota's role in my office."
LaPinta didn't respond to questions about when Spota's work release designation and supervised release sentence end, and whether Spota would stay on afterward.
In 2019, a jury convicted Spota and Christopher McPartland, of Northport, his former anti-corruption chief, of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and acting as accessories to the deprivation of prisoner Christopher Loeb's civil rights. Both were sentenced to 5 years in prison.
The verdict supported the prosecution's contention that both defendants orchestrated a cover-up of the beating of the shackled burglary suspect that then-Police Chief James Burke carried out with three detectives inside a Hauppauge precinct.
In court, federal prosecutors branded Spota the conspiracy's "CEO" and McPartland its "chief operating officer" and its "architect of the lies."
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. Miskiewicz, one of LaPinta's new law partners and a former deputy chief of the Long Island criminal division for the U.S. Attorney's Eastern District, was among the prosecutors who led the federal case against Burke.
After his conviction, Spota in court expressed anguish for the shame his conviction brought his family.
"I’ve also left them with a shattered legacy and the stain of being a convicted felon," he said in court at the time. "My family will forever be marked by my disgrace."
Both Spota and McPartland began their sentences in December 2021 after exhausting attempts to remain free on bail while pursuing appeals. A federal appeals court affirmed their convictions in August 2023.
Federal prison records show Spota was released from Bureau of Prisons custody on March 13.
Newsday previously reported McPartland was released from the low-security Federal Correctional Institution Beaumont in Texas in December 2023, two years into his 5-year sentence.
McPartland, who was also disbarred, had been placed on "community confinement" at the time, and assigned to a halfway house until his May 2024 release, prison officials said at the time. He could not be reached Wednesday.
Editor's Note -- An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Thomas Spota's position as an administrative law clerk.
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