Town of Babylon supervisor testifies at Spota, McPartland trial

Jurors in the Thomas Spota/Christopher McPartland obstruction of justice trial heard Monday from Democratic Party boss Richard Schaffer, who is also the Town of Babylon supervisor and a longtime friend of the former Suffolk DA.

News 12 Staff

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Nov 18, 2019, 4:45 PM

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Updated 1,813 days ago

Jurors in the Thomas Spota/Christopher McPartland obstruction of justice trial heard Monday from Democratic Party boss Richard Schaffer, who is also the Town of Babylon supervisor and a longtime friend of the former Suffolk DA.

Spota and McPartland, his key investigator, are on trial in federal court. They are accused of covering up former Police Chief James Burke's beating of suspect Christopher Loeb.

Schaffer testified about the relationship between Burke and Spota.

He told the jurors that at one point, Burke broke down to him and admitted that he had beat Loeb. He also said he does not know if Burke told Spota or McPartland the same thing.

Schaffer says he does not believe Spota would risk his career to cover up for Burke.

The jurors also heard testimony from a retired Suffolk police sergeant who headed up multiple internal affairs investigations into Burke before he became police chief.

Through their attorneys, both Spota and McPartland have denied covering up for Burke, saying Burke never told either of them that he had beaten Loeb.

The trial is expected to last three more weeks.