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He went from Suffolk County’s top prosecutor ruling with an iron-fist, to a felon, to a part-time paper pusher.
Former Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota, who was removed from his position due to corruption charges and received a five-year sentence for assisting in concealing the vicious assault of a restrained suspect, has silently reinvented himself as a clerk at a law firm on Long Island.
At the age of 83 and no longer licensed to practice law, Spota is currently employed part-time, being overseen by prominent criminal defense lawyer Anthony LaPinta based in Hauppauge. LaPinta had previously served as Spota’s defense attorney during legal proceedings.
As confirmed by LaPinta’s office to The Post, Spota has been employed as an administrative clerk at the firm since August of last year, following his relocation from federal detention in Danbury to a community confinement center.
“Mr. Spota has been under my direct supervision as an administrative clerk in my law office during his work-release designation and current supervised release sentence,” LaPinta told Newsday.
Spota does administrative work as a “nonlawyer administrative clerk” for about 10 to 15 hours per week for the firm and will remain on its payroll until at least the end of his supervised release, according to LaPinta.
In 2019, Spota and his former top anti-corruption deputy, Christopher McPartland, were both convicted of conspiracy, obstruction, witness tampering and helping to cover up the savage 2012 assault of burglary suspect Christopher Loeb inside a Suffolk precinct.
Then-police Chief James Burke and three detectives were said to have carried out the beating.
Loeb was allegedly handcuffed and manically beaten by the four officers inside a Suffolk police station after the suspect broke into Burke’s car and stole the police chief’s dildo and porn stash to sell for drugs.
Burke was sentenced to nearly four years for the beating in 2016. He now faces another stint in prison after he was busted for soliciting sex, and even masturbating in front of a plainclothes ranger at 10 a.m. in Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park in Farmingville back in 2023.
Spota’s office was later convicted of trying to bury the beating to shield his long-time friend, and sentenced to four years after Burke’s conviction.
In 2020, Spota was sentenced to five years in prison and disbarred.
At his sentencing, he told the court he felt deep shame for the damage he caused.
“I’ve also left [my family] with a shattered legacy and the stain of being a convicted felon.”