CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. -- A suburban New York police chief who orchestrated a department cover-up after beating a handcuffed man for stealing embarrassing items from his SUV has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison. James Burke is former Police Chief in Suffolk County, New York. Two decades ago, as a sergeant, Mr. Burke had a sexual relationship with a prostitute, according to an internal affairs investigation that accused Mr. Burke of accidentally leaving his handgun with the woman, Newsday reported. A Bag of Sex Toys, an Alleged Cover-Up and an Ex-D.A. We are honored to serve and protect the residents of Suffolk County. James Burke was formerly the police chief of the Suffolk County Police Department and previously served in the rank of Inspector as the commanding officer of the police department's Organized Crime Bureau. In what has been called an "unusual move," he was then criminally prosecuted by Spota and McPartland. 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Federal prosecutors have signaledthat charges may be looming for accomplices who helped Burke cover up the crime. Feb. 26, 2016. Some were warned that if they admitted wrongdoing, their union would not pay their legal fees. November 3, 2016 / 6:33 PM Hes very remorseful.. Anyone can read what you share. During the corruption trial, which is expected to last four weeks, several current and former Suffolk County police officers will appear as witnesses. Burke pleaded guilty to the charges and served time in prison. and the U.S. attorneys office opened an investigation of the assault in May 2013, according to a statement released by prosecutors announcing Mr. Burkes indictment in December. CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) --A former Long Islandpolice chief charged withbeating a handcuffed manfor stealing embarrassing items from his department vehicle and then covering it up was sentenced to 46 months in prison Wednesday. That's corruption.". Robert L. Capers, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said the investigation was continuing and would seek out those who might have been involved in wrongdoing. In the 2012 incident that led to his downfall, Burke was exacting revenge on a man who broke into his SUV that year. This page is not available in other languages. Burke, 54, of St. James, was charged in 2015 with assaulting Smithtown resident Christopher Loeb who was arrested for stealing a duffel bags with items from Burke's SCPD-issued SUV as well as other police vehicles in 2012. Their relationship began four decades ago in an unusual way: As a teenager, Mr. Burke testified as a witness in a homicide trial in which Mr. Spota was the prosecutor. ABC7 New York 24/7 Eyewitness News Stream. The county has one of the largest police forces in America and includes both working-class villages and wealthy enclaves like the Hamptons. Prosecutors, however, have said in court papers that Mr. Spota and Mr. McPartland operated in a manner more akin to criminal enterprise than a district attorneys office.. Mr. Spota, 78, served for more than 15 years as the top prosecutor in Suffolk County, on the eastern end of Long Island. He had subordinates conduct surveillance on his girlfriends, prosecutors said. Federal prosecutors indicated other charges may be looming for accomplices who aided the cover-up. 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Mr. Loeb later received a $1.5 million settlement from the county and a separate confidential settlement from Mr. The man whose 2012 beating by Suffolk police led to prison terms for ex-Chief of Department James Burke and former District Attorney Thomas Spota alleges in a federal lawsuit that he was . To prove Mr. Spota and Mr. McPartland were guilty of obstruction, according to the defense, the government must show the two men knew they were asking others to lie. He noted that more than 80 people had written letters seeking leniency and calling Burke a good man who helped many people in a 31-year career. Late in the afternoon, the jury also heard from Anthony Leto, another former Suffolk police officer who admitted to assaulting suspect Christopher Loeb and covering it up with then-police chief James Burke. Leto testified that the spying was under the guise of providing him security. "There was a level of justice here and that even somebody as high ranking as the chief of police can't engage in that kind of misconduct and that kind of corruption and that kind of coverup and get away with it," said Loeb's lawyer, Bruce Barket. Compared with those in other departments, officers in the Suffolk agency are well paid, making $125,000 in base pay. He has sued Burke and the Police Department, seeking damages. Mr. Spota and Mr. McPartland, 55, had each requested sentences that included. Burke pleaded not guilty in December after being accused of beating a man who broke into his police cruiser in 2012 and then trying to hide the alleged assault. Since the federal inquiry into Mr. Burkes actions began some three years ago, investigators have expanded their inquiries and are now examining the workings of the Police Department and the district attorneys office. One lied in court and said the attack had not happened. After 37 years, Suffolk County's police commissioner is retiring The next day, he resigned as the Suffolk County district attorney. The once popular and swaggering chief of the Suffolk County Police Department, James Burke, was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison on Wednesday for a series of misdeeds that. "And somebody has to say, 'obviously we're not doing that,' right?" At one meeting in 2015, Mr. Spota said that any police officers who flipped were dead and would never work in Suffolk County again, the filing said. For a few minutes, prosecutors said, Mr. Burke assaulted the suspect, screaming and threatening to kill him until a detective in the room finally said, Boss, thats enough.. Last month he was released from custody and transferred to a halfway house in New York City, Newsday reports. During the same meeting, Mr. Spota, Mr. McPartland and Mr. Burke discussed who was a rat and directed a police officer to remind other officers what happened to people who go against the administration.. It started with a duffel bag containing sex toys, cigars and a pornographic film. He will be assisted in finding a job and housing. Mr. Spota was a longtime Republican who ran as a Democrat to win election in 2001. Two years. They said he kept liquor in his office and regularly drove drunk. Mr. Spota and Mr. Burke have been close for decades, and the district attorney helped Mr. Burke secure his job as the top officer for much of Long Island, despite a sometimes checkered history. In Jan. 2017 Burke, who was sentenced to serve 46 months in prison, was transferred to the low-security prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania. The prostitute, who identified herself as Lee Ann, claimed she had rough sex with Burke. As a result, officers working the night of the beating or heard Burke brag about it at a Christmas party stayed quiet for years, prosecutors said. One lied in court and said the attack had not happened. The Suffolk Police Department is proud to be accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA). Joseph Conway, Mr. Burkes lawyer, later told reporters that he planned to argue for a sentence of less than five years in prison for violating the suspects civil rights and conspiring to obstruct justice. Topics you care about, straight to your inbox. He was named chief in 2012, the highest-ranking uniformed position in the department, which, like New York Citys, is led by a civilian commissioner. Here is the full text of Burke's plea statement: "On December 14, 2012, I was the Chief of the Suffolk County Police Department. We don't know.". The former chief, James Burke, 51, who was known for his swaggering confidence as the leader of one of the regions largest police departments, was subdued in Federal District Court here as the charges against him were read aloud. on Trial, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/14/nyregion/thomas-spota-corruption-trial.html. The 30-year-old was released from prison in January after a Suffolk judge set aside his guilty plea in the Burke theft because of perjured testimony given by cops at Burkes direction, Newsday reported. The bag belonged to James Burke, the police chief in Suffolk County, and was stolen from his parked car in December 2012. Mr. Burke was hoping to to dig up blackmail dirt on her, Mr. Miskiewicz testified, calling the episode something out of the K.G.B.. But in 2015, the prosecutors started investigating again, issuing grand jury subpoenas to police officers. . Burke also has been tied to the unsolved Gilgo Beach murders on Long Island by a lawyer to one of the victims and a prostitute who claimed the former chief took part in sex parties.. Sources say Bellone didn't want a security detail, but Burke told him there was a threat against him so he had one for a few months in 2012. "I feel Mr. Burke acted as a dictator,'' the judge said as the former chief sat stoically with his hands folded in front of his chin. To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com. As chief of the SCPD, Burke had been involved in the Gilgo Beach investigations, and in fact, had fired Suffolk County Chief of Detectives Dominic Varrone in late 2011 just two days after Gilbert's body was found. / CBS New York. Burke's mentor, Spotawas sentenced to serve five years in prison in August 2021 after a jury found him and McPartlandguilty in December 2019 of witness tampering, obstruction of justice and conspiracy for their role in the cover-up. He is expected to testify that the defendants instructed him to pressure other police detectives into hiding the truth about Mr. Burkes assault from investigators. He noted that more than 80 people had written letters seeking leniency and calling Burke a good man who helped many people in a 31-year career. The bodies of eight women, a man and a toddler have been found on or near Gilgo Beach since 1996. But new allegations against Burke kept coming, including one that he brazenly sent a group text to 10 other cops asking them to cover up the case, and that he somehow Burke had access to secret grand jury deliberations in the case. Burke became chief of the Suffolk County Police Department in 2012 after having served for nearly a decade as the chief investigator for Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas. Both men started serving their prisonsentences early this year. Ultimately, Mr. Burke was arrested and pleaded guilty in 2016 to a civil rights violation and conspiracy to obstruct justice. ", Burke will be able to leave the facility only through a sign-out procedure for "approved activities.". Former Suffolk Chief of Department James Burke pleaded guilty in 2016 to violating Loebs civil rights after admitting that he assaulted Loeb in a police precinct in 2012 and orchestrated a departmental cover-up of the beating. Prison officials found oxycodone a controlled substance prescribed for pain management in former Suffolk County Police Chief James Burkes cell at the low-security federal lockup in Allenwood, Pa., sources told Newsday. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. He realized what he did here, and he wants to own up to it, Mr. Conway said. The defense accused the government of turning Mr. Burkes longtime friendship with Mr. Spota and Mr. McPartland into a crime, saying the conversations that the three men had during the federal investigation did not rise to the level of obstruction of justice. James Burke is a former Suffolk County Police Chief who got shrouded in accusations of being involved in Long Island serial killings after rumors of his prior involvements with local sex workers came to light, placing him at a possible crime scene. "Our investigation is ongoing," the US attorney said. Burke . The police unions on Long Island are so wealthy they have formed a super PAC to flood local elections with campaign donations. Please enter valid email address to continue. Their lawyers on Thursday placed the blame squarely on Mr. Burke. All Rights Reserved. The charges against Mr. Burke stemmed from an episode in December 2012 when Christopher Loeb, a heroin addict who financed his $100-a-day habit by breaking into cars, was arrested on suspicion of stealing a duffel bag stuffed with cigars, pornographic DVDs and sex toys from Mr. Burkes police car. Copyright 2023 by The Associated Press. Credit: James Carbone, Michael O'Keeffe covers Suffolk County police and other Long Island law enforcement agencies. Drugs were found in the prison cell of a disgraced former Long Island police chief serving time for beating up a man who stole a stash of porn and a sex toy from his official police vehicle and covering it up, according to a report. In what has been called an "unusual move," he was then criminally prosecuted by Spota and McPartland. Officers subpoenaed by FBI agents investigating the 2012 beating were brought in and interrogated about whether they had talked, prosecutors said. Former Suffolk Police Chief James Burke to be Transferred to Pennsylvania Prison: Report, Former Suffolk Police Chief James Burke Sentenced to Federal Prison, Former Suffolk Police Chief Accused of Assault, Covering up Federal Investigation. Well fortunately today, for the first time in my life, my belief in the justice system has surfaced, because today, defendant Burke, there is law and this is order., First published on November 3, 2016 / 6:33 PM. Those efforts continued even after the F.B.I. When Mr. Spota heard the inquiry was resuming, he went nuts, according to a court filing from the F.B.I. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The victim was a 13-year-old boy who died when other teenagers shoved rocks down his throat. A union official falsely told several officers that Burke and "other high-ranking Suffolk County law enforcement authorities'' had secretly obtained copies of FBI memos containing the names of people speaking with investigators. ", Privacy Policy |Terms of service |Subscription terms |Your ad choices |Cookie Settings |California Privacy Rights |About Us |Contact Newsday |Reprints & permissions |Advertise with Newsday |Help. Mr. Hickey had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice, and Mr. Krantz said that he was testifying only to spare himself a harsh prison sentence. Burke, 52, who was Suffolks highest-ranking uniformed cop for four years until he resigned in late 2015, was segregated from other prisoners after the drug was discovered recently, sources told the paper. "You're talking about a man who is a two-time convicted felon, admitted heroin dealer, who did not make allegations that day that he was beaten up by anybody," he said. Mr. Spota and Mr. McPartland are also accused of requiring police witnesses to hire people from a list of lawyers who were expected to share information with Mr. Burkes legal team, prosecutors said. Robert Trotta, a retired Suffolk County Police detective and now a local legislator, has proposed changes meant to professionalize the department and take out some of the politics. The heart and soul of the governments case rests on the credibility of one witness, Mr. Krantz said. Its all part of a corruption case involving a former Long Island district attorney. But, Wexler said, "He also did bad if you were not on his side. When Mr. Burke entered the interrogation room, Mr. Loeb was handcuffed and chained to an eyebolt fastened to the floor, according to prosecutors. Burke became chief of the Suffolk County Police Department, one of the country's largest suburban police forces, in 2012 after having served for nearly a decade as the chief investigator for Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota. Copyright 2023 WABC-TV. The ex-police chief pleaded guilty last winter in the beating and cover-up. The co-conspirators were not identified in the letter, but prosecutors said their investigation is ongoing. Credit: Barry Sloan. You told me no one would believe me," Loeb added. He has asked for no prison time because he says his mother is dying of cancer. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, names the county, the police department and officers Shawn Petersen, Erik Pedersen, Frank Santanello, Mathew Kenneally and Glen Ritchie as defendants. Chief Burke grabbed me by my cheeks and hit me on the top of my head, Mr. Loeb testified during his 2013 trial, during which he was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison. A union official falsely told several officers Burke and other high-ranking Suffolk County law enforcement authorities had obtained copies of FBI memos containing the names of people speaking with investigators. Questions of Burke's fitness to lead surfaced as far back as 1995, when he was found guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer for twice failing to safeguard his weapon. A Suffolk County Police Officer begins the job at a salary of $42,000 per annum. Prosecutors called Burke's time as chief a "reign of terror.''. Outside the courthouse, Robert Trotta, a legislator and former police detective, said he was happy with the sentence. "He's made mistakes. Also in the bag was a gun belt and ammo. (TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. Hollywood writers going on strike over fair pay in streaming era, Missing teens likely among 7 people found dead in Oklahoma, authorities say, Fish contaminated with "forever chemicals" found in nearly every state, Gordon Lightfoot, "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" singer, dies at 84, CBS News Poll: How GOP primary race could be Trump v. Trump fatigue, At least 6 dead after dust storm causes massive pile-up on Illinois highway, Oklahoma governor signs gender-affirming care ban for kids, U.S. tracking high-altitude balloon first spotted off Hawaii, Bob Lee died from three stab wounds, medical examiner says, Missing teens may be among 7 found dead in Oklahoma, authorities say, Arkansas woman indicted for selling stolen body parts to Pennsylvania man, Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell case: A timeline of events, DNA solves "decades-old mystery" after woman's remains found in 1995. CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. The former police chief of Suffolk County pleaded guilty on Friday to federal charges stemming from accusations that he beat a suspect in custody, threatened . The defendant violated his oath and responsibilities as a law enforcement officer by exacting personal vengeance, assaulting a handcuffed suspect and abusing his authority as the highest ranking uniformed member of the Suffolk County Police Department, Mr. Capers said in a statement. He was released last summer. 2016 The Associated Press. . Internal Affairs reports also found Burke had engaged in sexual acts in police vehicles and had a sexual relationship with a convicted felon. This accreditation signifies a compliance with higher standards of practice and enforcement of policies that are focused on community-based policing, a commitment to excellence and resource management, and sound training practices. One officer told a federal agent he was a dead man, if that were true, the letter said. Burke was furious after Loeb, then a self-admitted drug addict, broke into his vehicle and stole items, including his gun belt, Viagra, pornography and sex toys, federal prosecutors charged in a trial of Spota and his then-former aide, Christopher McPartland. Former Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke apologized to his victim, the judge, his family and residents of his Long Island community before being sentenced to 46 months Wednesday by. He will then have three years post-supervised release and pay a $250,000 fine. He was released about 6 months early for good behavior, according to the New York Post. "I feel Mr. Burke acted as a dictator," the judge said as the former chief sat stoically with his hands folded in front of his chin. On Wednesday, former officer Kenneth Bombace, who admitted to assaulting suspect Christopher Loeb with Burke, testified he covered it up because Suffolk police officers feared a fate similar to Oliva's if they ever crossed Burke. Internal Affairs reports also found Burke had engaged in sexual acts in police vehicles and had a sexual relationship with "a convicted felon, known to be actively engaged in criminal conduct including the possession and sale of illegal drugs, prostitution and larceny.". I am proud of the hard work and dedication of the men and women of the Sheriff's Office. Loebs attorney, Christopher Cassar of Huntington, said the alleged 2019 attack was linked to Loeb's efforts to bring Burke and other officials to justice after the 2012 assault. I and others did knowingly and intentionally conspire and took affirmative steps to obstruct, including conspiring with other participants not to cooperate with the investigation, so that the grand jury and the United States Attorney's Office would not find out the true events of December 14, 2012.". At a court hearing after Mr. Burkes arrest, a federal prosecutor, James Miskiewicz, described a pattern of abuse, including the use of a contractor for the district attorneys office to install a GPS device on a deputy police commissioners car.
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