District Attorney Thomas J. Spota and Government Corruption Bureau Chief Christopher McPartland Convicted of Obstructing a Federal Civil Rights Investigation

April 2013, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the FBI initiated a federal grand jury investigation into the assault of Loeb. 

On 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 existence of the federal investigation. McPartland instructed Hickey to debrief his Intel detectives and learn what was said by the FBI agents serving the subpoenas, and find out who might be cooperating with them. However, because of the threats and intimidation, none of the Intel detectives cooperated with the investigation, and it was closed eight months later, in December 2013. Through the efforts of the defendants and Burke, the initial grand jury investigation of Burke’s civil rights violation was successfully derailed. 

In or about mid-2015, Spota and McPartland learned that the federal investigation had been reopened, and that its scope had expanded to include an investigation of the obstruction of justice and witness tampering offenses. The defendants reacted swiftly to obstruct it. Hickey testified that at a meeting with the defendants in Spota’s office on June 4, 2015, Spota 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 them with prosecution if they cooperated with the investigation.

The defendants’ efforts to thwart the grand jury investigations ultimately failed. In early December 2015, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of New York indicted Burke. Burke pleaded guilty approximately two months later, admitting to his involvement in both the deprivation of Loeb’s civil rights and the conspiracy to obstruct justice. In November 2016, he was sentenced to 46 months’ in prison.  Case Recap

October 3, 1993 Burke had reported the loss or theft of his .380 caliber Beretta semiautomatic gun on, 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,”

1993-1995 Pat Cuff led internal affairs investigation into James Burke in the that was initiated when Burke was caught having sex with a prostitute in his patrol car while in uniform. Internal Affair Report #152 was launched due to allegations surfaced that Burke, known to those on the streets as “Starsky,” it was reported he consumed drugs and failing to enter drugs as police property 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 in 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 the 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,”

2005 Intimidation: The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, under Tom Spota and Christopher McPartland, sought to upgrade charges against Cuff’s then 18-year-old son, who was caught with Cuff’s gun, from misdemeanor level to felony level.

2012, at the recommendation of Tom Spota, and in spite of a disqualifying disciplinary record that included consorting with prostitutes, losing his department gun and threatening subordinates, County Executive Steve Bellone appointed James Burke Chief of SCPD. 

When Burke was promoted to Chief of Police, he demoted Cuff four ranks and assigned him to work in a property warehouse.

2012 Removed Detective Olivia

September 2012, then Chief of Department James Burke removed Oliva from the LIGTF while simultaneously removing other detectives from other task forces. Oliva complained bitterly about his removal and openly challenged and badmouthed Burke. Oliva’s conduct was soon reported to Burke who became enraged. Then Oliva, believing that he was wrongly removed from the LIGTF,

Multiple witnesses will testify that, at the time the Oliva Investigation was initiated, the defendants were aware that Oliva was considered by their coconspirator, James Burke, to be an “enemy” and that the defendants viewed Oliva as an enemy as well, because an enemy of James Burke was an enemy of McPartland and Spota.

While monitoring calls on the Oliva wire, defendant McPartland was in regular phone contact with James Burke, updating him on the substance of the wire. Finally, multiple witnesses are expected to testify about a January 2014 meeting of the SCPD and SCDAO related to the Oliva Investigation during which meeting defendant Spota indicated, in substance, a desire to obtain information about the phone usage of Tania Lopez, a member of the media and an employee of Newsday, in order to find out her sources of information. Defendant Spota’s position in this regard was surprising, as while it is a crime to take police department reports and leak them to the press, it is not a crime for a reporter to publish such information. Further proof that an enemy of James Burke is an enemy of defendant Spota Read Court Recorts