A federal appeals court has affirmed the corruption convictions of disgraced ex-Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota and his former top deputy Christopher McPartland, his public corruption bureau chief, who were found guilty of covering up a high-profile police beating.
A panel of judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan issued the ruling Friday, rejecting Spota and McPartland’s arguments seeking to overturn their convictions for blocking the federal investigation into ex-Suffolk Police Chief James Burke, who later pleaded guilty to beating a handcuffed suspect who stole Burke’s bag of porn, ammunition and sex toys.
Why the court upheld Spota, McPartland Convictions
“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,” the judges wrote in their ruling. The pair had argued that the court had improperly admitted that evidence of officers’ fear of retaliation, labeling it as “irrelevant and inflammatory.”
What led to the Spota, McPartland Convictions
In 2012, three Suffolk County detectives — Kenneth Bombace, Anthony Leto, and Michael Malone — interrogated interrogated Christopher Loeb before Burke stepped in and assaulted him, only stopping when other officers eventually intervened.
Burke allegedly put then-Lt. James Hickey in charge of ensuring that no officers talked about the incident.
When the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District investigated the beating in 2013, Burke, Spota, and McPartland used their influence to prevent any witnessing officers from cooperating, the court said, and the investigation turned up insufficient evidence.
But when Bombace, Leto, and Hickey were granted either immunity or cooperation deals, they admitted their role in the conspiracy to cover up the beating, and Burke was eventually charged in 2016 after resigning in late 2015. Burke served 46 months in prison and three years of supervised release for his charges.
Spota and McPartland were convicted on counts 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 the civil rights of a victim.
The appeals court ruling comes days after Burke was arrested again this week under unrelated circumstances when he allegedly solicited a prostitute at a Suffolk County park. Those charges are pending.
