Spota, McPartland to learn their fates at sentencing scheduled for Tuesday

Former Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota and his top aide are set to be sentenced Tuesday on federal corruption charges for their roles in orchestrating the cover-up of a 2012 police beating of a suspect.

Spota and Christopher McPartland, who led the district attorney’s public corruption unit, were convicted at trial in December 2019 of orchestrating the cover-up of the beating of Christopher Loeb by former Police Chief James Burke, a close Spota and McPartland ally.

Burke, who pleaded guilty in 2016, served most of a 46-month prison sentence for his role in the cover-up, which authorities have said was designed to impede a federal civil rights investigation.

U.S. District Court Judge Joan M. Azrack said in court papers last week that both Spota, 79, of Mt. Sinai, and McPartland, 55, of Northport, are looking at sentences of 57 to 71 months in prison – longer than Burke’s prison sentence. Spota turns 80 years old on Sept. 6.

Azrack, in the filing, rejected defense arguments for the men to receive shorter sentences because, according to their lawyers, it was Burke who orchestrated the cover-up, not their clients. The defense attorneys argued against the court applying enhancements to the sentencing guidelines and earlier had made the case for their clients to receive home confinement and community service.

But prosecutors had argued for the defendants to receive 96 months, which would represent a departure from both federal sentencing guidelines and the recommendation made by probation officials, saying the sentences should reflect the "unprecedented magnitude and scope of the defendants’ abuse of power."

Spota was the longtime district attorney when on Dec. 14, 2012, a then-heroin addict Loeb broke into Burke’s department vehicle, which was parked in St. James, and stole his duffel bag. The bag contained Burke’s gun belt, ammunition, a box of cigars, police union cards, sex toys, pornography and Viagra, according to trial testimony.

Embarrassed by the theft, Burke assaulted a handcuffed Loeb inside the Fourth Precinct in Hauppauge, an event that initiated a federal investigation, multiple former police detectives testified at trial.

Prosecutors alleged Spota and McPartland were so determined to keep their good friend Burke from being prosecuted by federal authorities for assaulting Loeb that they engaged in a three-year-long conspiracy to conceal the beating.

Lawyers for both defendants have contended Burke never admitted the assault to them, therefore there was nothing for them to cover up.

A jury in 2019 convicted Spota and McPartland of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and acting as accessories to the deprivation of the prisoner’s civil rights.

Spota and McPartland’s trial was the first time that some of those involved in Loeb’s assault spoke publicly, with two of the three detectives who took part in the beating with Burke testifying about the police brutality and how the pressure to keep quiet later changed their lives and careers.

It was testimony from James Hickey, a retired Suffolk police lieutenant, that formed the heart of the government’s case. He told jurors he acted as a middleman in a years-long conspiracy to cover up Loeb’s beating after being tasked with ensuring the silence of the three detectives who committed the assault with Burke.

Hickey linked Spota and McPartland directly to the conspiracy with testimony that included his recall of a June 2015 meeting in Spota’s office that happened after federal officials relaunched a probe into Loeb’s beating after their initial investigation fell flat in 2013.

Word of a reopened probe panicked Spota, according to Hickey’s testimony. He told jurors Spota grilled him on who he suspected had "flipped," or started cooperating with federal officials.

"Somebody’s talking. You better find out fast, if it’s not too late," Hickey testified the district attorney also told him that day.

Azrack has scheduled the sentencing for 10:30 a.m. at the federal courthouse in Central Islip.

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com,bridget.murphy@newsday.com@NicoleFuller,

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