• Spota and McPartland were convicted in December 2019 on counts of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and civil rights violations
• Prosecutors said Spota and his aide helped cover up the beating of a shackled prisoner by then-Suffolk Police Chief James Burke in 2012
• Burke attacked Christopher Loeb for breaking into his vehicle and stealing a bag containing sex toys, Viagra and pornography
• Burke, 56, pleaded guilty in 2016 and was sentenced to nearly four years in prison

• Thomas Spota met James Burke when He was a key witness in the 1979 trial of the murder of a young boy named John Pius, because Burke witnessed them stealing a bike.
• Thomas Spota was a prosecutor And again testifying in 1990. 13-year-old named John Pius battered body was found in the woods in Smithtown, N.Y., in 1979 with six rocks jammed down his throat. Read Article

• October 3, 1993, Burke reported the loss or theft of his .380-caliber Beretta semiautomatic gun, according to a Suffolk County Police Department field report. Oct. 4, 1993, A supplementary report was filed, reporting he located” his firearm. “The weapon was located in Sergeant Burke’s residence in a secure location,”
• Internal Affair Report #152 was launched due to allegations that surfaced that Burke, known to those on the streets as “Starsky,” was reported to have consumed drugs and had failed to enter the drugs as police property, and had drugs seized from dealers. During this Investigation Detectives learned that James Burke was having relationship with Lorita Rickenbacke a known Felon.
• November 1993. Rickenbacker, in a sworn statement, told investigators that Burke gave her his car keys while they were at a diner on Sunrise Highway in Babylon.” She told him she needed to run home because she left the house unlocked, so he gave her his car keys, and he waited at the diner for her.”
• Rickenbacker’s sworn statement says that Burke’s gun belt and uniform were in the backseat. “James’ gun was in his gun belt,” “I took the gun out of the holster and brought it into the house. I put the gun belt and his uniform in the trunk. When she got home, she started doing drugs and did not return to the diner. He got the weapon back when he arrived at her house hours later. “When James and his partner came to my house I gave him the gun back.” Rickenbacker told investigators that the two broke off the relationship after that incident.”

• April 27, 1994, Investigators interviewed Rickenbacker at Nassau County. Rickenbacker was in jail on charges of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument. Rickenbacker told investigators she met James Burke in May 1992 when her girlfriend was hit by a car in North Amityville near Sunrise Highway and Albany Avenue. She admitted to police that she was a crack user and Burke “seemed concerned for me and we became friends.” “After about six months, I was comfortable enough to get in the police car number 137 with him,” Rickenbacker said. Burke gave her small gifts such as roses and money for food, but admitted she used to buy crack, and that the two engaged in oral sex in his patrol car, she said in her sworn statement.

• January 31, 1995, Internal Affairs officers interviewed James Burke. Burke told investigators that he had a six-month sexual relationship with Rickenbacker but denied he knew she was a criminal.

“Sergeant Burke could not recall if he ever let Rickenbacker use his personal car, but he denied that Rickenbacker had ever possessed his weapon in the manner she described . . . ,” the detective said in the report. “He could not recall if he allowed Lowrita to sit in the police car, but he absolutely denies having engaged in any sexual activity while on duty.”Burke said he ended the relationship “when he began to hear rumors about Lowrita,” according to his sworn statement.

• Investigators found that Rickenbacker, who took a polygraph test, was telling the truth about the two times Burke failed to safeguard his weapon, the report and the sources said. In addition, the report found that Burke knew about Rickenbacker’s criminal history because her crimes occurred in Burke’s precinct.

“Given Sergeant Burke’s forte for being aware of the criminal element in his patrol zone, and his intimate association with Lowrita Rickenbacker, his claim that he knew nothing of her activities or background seems disingenuous. Her professed admiration and support for Sergeant Burke also lend credence to her account of the incidents she described.” But the drug use allegation was unfounded, and the accusation of improperly returning the drug was found to be unsubstantiated.

• Thomas Spota was the Suffolk County District Attorney. He was elected in 2001 and held that position until the end of 2017. (Tr. 2405-07.) Christopher McPartland worked with Spota at the District Attorney’s Office until December 2017. During the events in question, McPartland was the Chief of the Government Corruption Bureau and the Investigations Division. Source

• “The Inner Circle” group was created in November and included Chief of Detectives William Madigan. Hickey who was leading the police department’s criminal intelligence unit, Tom Spota – DA, Chris McPartland, Jimmy Burke, union official Russ McCormack, and the detectives, including Bombace, Anthony Leto, Michael Malone, Hickey and Cliff Lent. Members of “The Inner Circle” would destroy enemies financially, personally and professionally, even going after a target’s family. As the group saw it, “if you crossed one, you crossed all,” according to Hickey.

The Inner Circle” moniker, Spota, Burke and McPartland called themselves “The Administration” as the three men in charge of law and order in the county.

• Once Burke was promoted to Chief of Police, he pulled Suffolk Police Detectives off a Federal Task Force. The three detectives on the task force were loyal to the feds, “who we hate,” Hickey recalled Burke saying. The witness said the real reason behind their removal was to cut Trotta’s ties to federal officials to minimize his power.
• Detectives, John Oliva, went to news with information and also filed a complain with the FBI agents about Burke Internal Afair Investigation and Findings..
• Spota, Burke and McPartland met to discuss Detective Oliva and decided to target Oliva for investigation and prosecution because he had become an enemy of theirs and was suspected of revealing embarrassing information about them to the press.
• Spota applied for a wiretap on Oliva’s phone, under the false pretenses of “officer safety.” A judge approved the wiretap, and it lasted for four months..
• Following a four-month wiretap investigation, Oliva was charged by way of a Superior Court Information with Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree, a class E felony; Computer Trespass, a class E felony; and Official Misconduct, a class A misdemeanor.

Read More

• December 14, 2012, The civil rights violation related to Burke’s assault of a Smithtown man who had been arrested for breaking into Burke’s SCPD-issued vehicle and stealing his property. Christopher Loeb, who was under arrest and being held in an interrogation room at the 4th Precinct in Hauppauge, New York. Loeb had broken into Burke’s official police vehicle and stolen his gun belt and ammunition, and a duffel bag containing cigars, sex toys, prescription Viagra, and pornography.

• June 25, 2013, FBI Special Agents served members of the SCPD with federal grand jury subpoenas. That same day, defendants Spota and McPartland learned of the federal investigation. McPartland instructed Hickey to debrief his Intel detectives, learn what the FBI agents serving the subpoenas said, and find out who might be cooperating with them.
• October 2013, one of those detectives testified falsely under oath in a state pretrial hearing in the Loeb prosecution, denying that Loeb had been assaulted. The government’s case was being prosecuted by the Office’s Long Island Criminal Section.
• In December 2013, because of the threats and intimidation, none of the Intel detectives cooperated with the investigation, and it was closed eight months later. Through the efforts of the defendants and Burke, the initial grand jury investigation of Burke’s civil rights violation was successfully derailed.

• September 9, 2014, Detective Olivia pleaded guilty to Official Misconduct and was sentenced to a conditional discharge.
• 2012 – 2015 Following that assault, over almost three years, Burke and other Suffolk County law enforcement authorities took action to obstruct the federal civil rights investigation into the assault. After the assault, Burke ordered high-ranking lieutenants of the SCPD to ensure that the detectives and officers who had witnessed the assault would never reveal what they had observed.
• Burke also enlisted the help of his long-time mentor, then-District Attorney Spota, and McPartland, his personal friend and then-Chief of both Investigations and the Government Corruption Bureau, to ensure that the witnesses kept quiet.
• Having served as the Suffolk County D.A. for over a decade, Spota had successfully helped Burke avoid legal trouble regularly during their decades-long friendship. McPartland, who worked directly under Spota, also had built a close friendship with Burke, and was the first person who Burke called the morning he discovered that his vehicle had been burglarized.
• Burke summoned detectives under his command to SCPD headquarters in Yaphank, New York, to persuade the detectives to agree to a false version of events that would conceal the assault.

• June 4, 2015, District Attorney Spota brought Hickey into his office and asked him, “Who do you think has flipped?” In discussing which of the detectives might be a “rat,” cooperating with federal investigators, Spota said about one of the likely cooperators, “If he talks, he’s dead. He will never work in Suffolk County again.” In that same meeting, McPartland told Hickey to pass along a message to the Intel detectives, threatening to prosecute them if they cooperated with the investigation.
• December 9, 2015, Burke was arrested and arraigned. Burke was Suffolk County’s highest-ranking officer for four years, was arrested and indicted on charges of obstruction of justice and violating the civil rights of Christopher Loeb, then 26, of Smithtown, and then orchestrating a departmental cover-up of the crime in 2012. He was deemed by a federal judge as a danger to the community, bail was denied, and Burke remained in federal custody till his sentencing. Burke and others pressured the detectives who witnessed the assault to conceal the event. Those efforts continued even after the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office opened an investigation of the assault in 2013.

• February 26, 2016, Burke pleaded guilty to a civil rights violation and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
• November 2, 2016, Burke was sentenced to 46 months in prison.

• August 10, 2021, Spota and Government Corruption Bureau Chief Christopher McPartland Each Sentenced to Five Years in Prison

The hiring exam scandal involved tests that awarded points for answers matching the profiles of “ideal officers,” along with allegations that senior staff who had access to answers operated a prep school.

Hundreds of the 37,000 applicants were found to have falsely answered questions to match the preferred officer profiles. A grand jury indicted a sergeant who taught a prep course, alleging he used stolen profile information to coach more than 700 applicants.

A lieutenant was indicted for destroying evidence of test cheating that had been sought by the District Attorney’s Office. That lieutenant ultimately retired and later became a practicing attorney on Long Island.

A deputy inspector admitted that he had answers to the 1996 test and faced departmental charges for coaching the sons of friends in the department for the 1988 test.

Ultimately, 55 officers avoided dismissal. Then-Chief Gallagher stated, “I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.”

Under an agreement negotiated by county attorneys, the officers, and the PBA:

• Three officers received six-month suspensions.
• Nineteen officers received shorter suspensions, some as little as two days.
• Ten officers were exonerated.

A retired detective and spokesman for the Guardians, a fraternal organization of Black officers, stated, “It’s kind of strange that a lot of the names people were expecting on that list weren’t there,” adding that he believed senior officers were protecting friends and family.

December 2007, Martin Tankleff’s Conviction Vacated

The New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division, Second Department, unanimously vacated the conviction of Martin Tankleff for the 1988 murders of his parents and ordered his case returned to Suffolk County for a retrial “to be conducted with all convenient speed.”

The court stated, “It is abhorrent to our sense of justice and fair play to countenance the possibility that someone innocent of a crime may be incarcerated or otherwise punished for a crime which he or she did not commit.”

Tankleff had been wrongfully convicted as a 17-year-old. He ultimately spent 17 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

A member of Thomas Spota’s law firm was reported to have represented Seymour Tankleff’s business partner in the late 1980s in a matter connected to the sale of cocaine out of the store.

A baking supplies wholesaler was also reported to have testified in 2004 that he had frequently seen Detective James McReady and Seymour Tankleff’s business partner together in the store in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Tankleff graduated from Touro Law Center in 2014 and passed the New York State bar exam in 2017.

April 2018, Tankleff Settlement

Martin Tankleff reached a $10 million settlement with Suffolk County.

In 2012, Task Force Dismantled and Detective John Oliva were targeted

In 2012, the Suffolk County Chief of Police dismantled a task force. Detective John Oliva filed a complaint with the FBI and spoke to the press.

James Burke, Thomas Spota, and Christopher McPartland later conspired during one of their meetings to target Oliva because he had become an enemy of theirs and was suspected of revealing embarrassing information about them to the press.

Spota applied for a wiretap on Oliva’s phone under the stated reason of “officer safety.” The wiretap was approved by a judge.

Following a four-month wiretap investigation, Oliva was charged by Superior Court Information with:

• Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree, a class E felony.
• Computer Trespass is a class E felony.
• Official Misconduct is a class A misdemeanor.

September 9, 2014, John Oliva Pleads Guilty

John Oliva pleaded guilty to Official Misconduct and was sentenced to a conditional discharge.

February 26, 2016, James Burke Pleads Guilty

James Burke pleaded guilty in federal court to violating Christopher Loeb’s civil rights and to conspiracy related to efforts to conceal evidence.

Burke was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison.

October 25, 2017, Spota and McPartland Arrested

FBI agents arrested former Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas J. Spota and Government Corruption Bureau Chief Christopher McPartland on federal charges, including witness tampering and deprivation of civil rights.

Spota resigned from office in November 2017.

2018, Conviction Integrity Bureau Established Under District Attorney Sini

Upon taking office in 2018, District Attorney Timothy Sini established the Conviction Integrity Bureau.

The bureau was created to investigate claims of innocence, remedy identified wrongful convictions, and provide proactive support and recommendations to prevent future wrongful convictions.

December 17, 2019, Spota and McPartland Convicted

After a six-week federal trial, a jury convicted former District Attorney Thomas J. Spota and former Government Corruption Bureau Chief Christopher McPartland.

They were convicted of:

• Conspiracy to tamper with witnesses and obstruct an official proceeding.
• Witness tampering.
• Obstruction of justice.
• Being accessories after the fact to former Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke’s deprivation of a prisoner’s civil rights.

August 2021, John Oliva Applies for Conviction Review

John Oliva, through counsel, submitted an application to the Conviction Integrity Bureau requesting review of his case.

The investigation found that Oliva’s claims were substantiated.

2021, John Oliva’s Conviction Overturned

John Oliva’s conviction was overturned after review by the Conviction Integrity Bureau.

2022, Suffolk County Settlement with John Oliva

Suffolk County agreed to pay $1.5 million to former Suffolk County Police Detective John Oliva after his conviction for leaking information to a Newsday reporter was overturned