Bellone Calls on Spota to Resign, Says DA's Office 'Must Be Stopped'

UPDATED Friday at 7:20 p.m. with response from DA Thomas Spota:

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone publicly called on Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota to step down Thursday afternoon with claims that Spota is “operating a criminal enterprise that must be stopped.”

Bellone says his actions were inspired by recent reports of alleged political corruption in the district attorney’s office.

“Tom Spota, you must resign from this office so we can begin the process of reforming this place governmentally and politically in a way to ensure this never happens again,” Bellone said at a press conference outside Spota’s office in Hauppauge. “And if you fail to do so, I will call on the Governor to exercise his authority under the constitution to remove you from this office.” Watch Bellone's statement here:

Spota’s office has faced scrutiny in the recent months for reportedly spying on officials, bullying people in government and making politically-driven decisions, according to the New York Times.

In response to Bellone’s allegations, Spota says Bellone's allegations are "baseless" and the County Exeutive has a "vendetta" against him for investigating and prosecuting people close to him.

“I have never said it before, but I'll say it now. The County Executive has made and did make in the past, multiple personal pleas to me in the presence of other prosecutors, not to investigate or prosecute people that he was close to,” Spota said.

Spota believes Bellone’s accusations stem from the County Executive’s wish “that perhaps he thinks that perhaps another prosecutor will do what he wants and choose to look the other way.”

“And that's why he stood on the steps outside and said outrageous things…that 190 prosecutors, cops, and support staff are all a part of a 'culture of corruption.' It's outrageous and it's false,” Spota said.

Bellone, however, told reporters that he was compelled to demand Spota to step down following a Newsday report that came out Thursday morning.

The Newsday report revealed that in 2007, Spota, along with former county police chief James Burke (who was the district attorney’s chief investigator at the time) and chief of the government corruption bureau, prosecutor Christopher McPartland, managed a Suffolk County district attorney government corruption bureau wiretap operation.

Officials, after obtaining wiretap warrants, would eavesdrop on conversations from government officials, armed robbers, cocaine dealers and others all day and night, but most of the criminal activity went suspiciously unpunished, the report says. Some of the wiretapped conversations revealed names of cocaine dealers who never faced charges despite selling drugs to Long Island high schoolers, the report says.

”Today’s report gives a real insight into what has been happening,” Bellone said.

A federal investigation is also looking into other reports of questionable surveillance methods by the district attorney's office. Investigators are looking into the wiretapping of a detective’s phone in 2014 that was part of an effort to see who was saying damaging things about Burke, the New York Times reports.

Bellone says Spota helped conceal Burke’s past as he moved up in the police ranks. The two met nearly 30 years ago when Spota, an assistant district attorney at the time, used 14-year-old Burke as a witness in a well-publicized murder trial, according to the Long Island Press. Burke, after a few years in law enforcement, worked under Spota as a top investigator for a decade before Bellone appointed him the county’s police chief in 2012.

Burke, who stepped down as chief in October, pleaded guilty in February to covering up an assault and obstructing a federal civil rights investigation after he was accused of beating a suspect in police custody who stole from him in 2012, thereby violating the man's civil rights, and pressured the detectives who witnessed the assault to cover it up.

Bellone is also now under scrutiny after it was revealed he received an anonymous letter in Dec. 2011 that warned him about Burke’s past and said appointing Burke as chief would cause scandal, according to News 12. Bellone presumably disregarded the letter and appointed Burke to chief of the county’s police department months later.

Burke didn’t have a clean past prior to the civil rights case, either. According to the Long Island Press, a 1995 federal investigation around Burke claimed he:

• “Engaged in a personal, sexual relationship” with a drug-using prostitute.
• “Engaged in sexual acts in police vehicles while on duty and in uniform.”

Following Bellone's press conference, Suffolk County Republican legislators Tom Climi, Minority Leader Kevin McCaffrey, Leslie Kennedy, Robert Trotta and Thomas Muratore called on both Spota and Bellone to step down immediately.

“At a time when we are experiencing an unprecedented addiction crisis, and given the reality that Suffolk County leads the State of New York in heroin overdoses, the thought that the District Attorney may have spared drug dealers in order to protect corrupt politicians is beyond horrifying,” Legis. Cilmi said in a press release. “If true, to say this is disgraceful, disgusting, nauseating, would be far too generous.”

“The people of Suffolk County have had enough of the corruption from County Executive Bellone and District Attorney Spota,” Legis. McCaffrey said. “It is time to restore trust in our government and for Bellone and Spota to step down.”

Rich Schaffer, the Babylon Town Supervisor and chairman of the SuffolkCounty Democratic Committee, told Patch he doesn't think Spota should resign and he suggested everyone let the "professionals do their job just as they did in the Burke case."

Bellone presented a letter demanding Spota’s resignation to the district attorney’s office following Thursday’s press conference.

“Up until not very long ago, you would think Tom Spota was a great district attorney going after criminals,” Bellone said.

Spota has never been under investigation prior to these recent reports, according to the Times.

Bellone did not say who he would like to replace Spota and asked anyone who thinks they can do the job to step forward.