Calls grow for Spota to step down

More Suffolk lawmakers are calling for District Attorney Thomas Spota to step down.
Republican Legislators Robert Trotta, Kevin McCaffrey and Tom Cilmi, as well as Legislator Kate Browning of the Working Families Party, are calling for the DA's resignation. 
The calls come a day after Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone demanded Spota resign. Bellone accused the DA of corruption and called Spota the head of a "criminal enterprise."
As of now, the remaining 13 legislators are not jumping to conclusions but many have questions for Spota. Presiding Officer DuWayne Gregory, a Democrat, says Spota personally called him yesterday to talk about the allegations.



"I expressed to him the concern my caucus has, and he wanted to let us know he would make himself available to talk to the caucus and whatever fashion we would want to do that," says Gregory. "Some of the things we are considering is maybe having a public hearing to give him an opportunity, a forum to present his side of the case."



Bellone said yesterday that he would ask Gov. Andrew Cuomo to remove Spota if he didn't resign. News 12 Long Island asked Bellone today if he had contacted Cuomo.



"We've had discussions with the governor's office, but we're not there yet," said Bellone. "We are still in a stage where there are more calls for him to step down. We're very hopeful he will heed those calls."



Bellone wouldn't give a timeline of when he would ask the governor to take action.