Long Island DA Protected Corrupt Police Chief Like Westchester DA Protected Son of Long Island Police Chief

I read today the New York Times account of a criminal conspiracy involving senior officials in the Suffolk County DA’s Office and Suffolk County Police Department. It sounded familiar based on my experience with the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office and their years long effort to protect the now-convicted-felon son of a former Suffolk County Police Commissioner.

Former Long Island Prosecutors Sentenced in Plot to Protect Police Chief

At the top of the Long Island conspiracy was Thomas J. Spota who served as the District Attorney of Suffolk County from 2002 to late 2017. He resigned after he was found guilty of federal charges of obstruction of justice in the investigation of Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke who became chief in 2012. Spota was disbarred last year and sentenced Tuesday to five years in federal prison and fined $100,000.

Reading The New York Times account brought back memories of my years of efforts to expose corruption in the City School District of New Rochelle which ultimately resulted in two federal felony convictions on bribery and kickback charges after district contractor Mauro Zonzini flipped on his partner in crime, the former head of the buildings and grounds department for the district.

During the period of time his father was Suffolk County Police Chief — and for years after that — John Gallagher (the son) was an Aramark consultant working with City Hall as Director of Facilities/ Director of Environmental Services/ Director of Buildings and Grounds (take your pick, he claimed all three titles).

Over a period of years Talk of the Sound published a 24-part series: New Rochelle Board of Education: Criminal Enterprise Masquerading as an Educational Institution. The series documented the rampant corruption under Gallagher’s leadership.

I made many efforts to convince the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office to investigate the corruption in the school but was stonewalled at every turn.

John Gallagher (the father) was Suffolk County Police Commissioner from 1997 to 2004. James Burke served under Gallagher as Commanding Officer of the Police Department’s Organized Crime Bureau and Suffolk County Police Chief from 2012 until his indictment in 2017 during the exact time I was working to expose corruption in New Rochelle under John Gallagher (the son).

The final straw in dealing with the DA stonewalling came during a meeting set up by then-DA Janet DeFiore who, in 2016, was appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo to be the Chief Judge of the State of New York.

I met with the most senior criminal prosecutor and others including detectives in the DA’s office. The meeting ended with me telling them to go f—- themselves when my reporting was mocked and I was asked whether it ever occurred to me that John Gallagher “was the victim”.

I walked out of their office, out of the building and around the corner to the federal courthouse where I spent many hours providing the same information I gave to the DA but this time to Assistant U.S. Attorneys, Internal Revenue Service agents, United States Postal Inspection Service agents and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.

Unlike the DA, which refused to lift a finger to pursue massive corruption in the New Rochelle school district, the federal government pursued what I reported to them (along with over 10,000 records) about corruption involving John Gallagher (the son) and people working with him and under him.

The U.S. Attorney’s Officer secured two felony convictions. Gallagher was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison. Zonzini avoid prison time but both had to pay a quarter-million dollars in civil forfeiture and restitution to the school district.

In addition to the 37 month prison sentence, Gallagher was sentenced to 2 years supervised release, $125,000 in civil forfeiture and $125,000 in restitution to the City School District of New Rochelle. Gallagher and Zonzini were made jointly liable for a share of the restitution. The civil forfeiture will be garnished up to 20% of gross income for any paychecks Gallagher earns after he is released from prison.

Former New Rochelle Schools Director Pleads Guilty To Corruption

“There have been all kinds of concerns about corruption in New Rochelle,” Federal Prosecutor Benjamin Allee told the Court, “those concerns have been vindicated”.

I guess that is about as close to a “thank you” I can expect from the feds.

At the time, I could not understand why prosecutors and detectives in the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office were so committed to protecting such an obvious and well-documented criminal case against John Gallagher (the son).

It was only years later that I learned that Gallagher’s father had been the head of the 11th largest police force in the United States.

Reading now the history of a criminal history of prosecutors and top police officials in Suffolk County, I have come to believe the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office was protecting John Gallagher (the son) as a favor to John Gallagher (the father) and when I went around them to the feds, they joined with local police to engage in reprisals against me.

Consider this from The Times:

“During a years long conspiracy, the sitting district attorney — let me repeat, the sitting district attorney — conspired to tamper with witnesses,” Judge Azrack said, “in order to thwart a federal investigation into an assault committed by the head — the head — of the Suffolk County police department.”

Mr. Spota, 79, was elected to four terms in office as district attorney and was an “immensely powerful and influential figure” in Suffolk County, Judge Azrack said. Mr. McPartland had served 27 years as a prosecutor for the district attorney’s office.

And…

Mr. Spota and Mr. McPartland’s conviction in 2019 hinged on the testimony of James Hickey, the former police lieutenant who testified that he served as an intermediary between the detectives and the higher-ups.

Mr. Hickey described an atmosphere laced with fear and intimidation. Loyalty was currency, and at one 2015 meeting Mr. Spota said that any police officers who flipped were “dead,” and “would never work in Suffolk County again,” according to court records. The “men in charge” — Mr. Burke, Mr. Spota and Mr. McPartland — called themselves “the administration,” Mr. Hickey testified.

John Gallagher (the father) died in June.

John Gallagher (the son) was released from federal prison last year.