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Thomas Spota

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Thomas J. Spota III
District Attorney of Suffolk County
In office
2001–incumbent
Preceded byJames M. Catterson, Jr.
ConstituencySuffolk County, New York
Personal details
Born1941
Political partyDemocratic
Alma materFairfield, B.A.
St. John's Law, J.D.

Thomas J. Spota III is the District Attorney of Suffolk County, New York. Spota was inducted into the Long Island Press Power List Hall of Fame having been named to the Power List at least five times.[1]

District Attorney of Suffolk County

Spota has been the District Attorney since 2001, when he defeated three-time incumbent James M. Catterson Jr.[2] He was reelected in 2005,[3] and again in 2009 without any major-party opposition.[4] Spota has been active in the fight against the distribution of child pornography over the Internet. In 2003, Spota indicted twelve Suffolk residents who utilized, KaZaA, a file-sharing program to spread child pornography.[5] As a result, Spota was called to testify before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary on September 9, 2003 at a hearing concerning the building on "Pornography, Technology, and Process: Problems and Solutions on Peer-to-Peer Networks." Spota recommended a new federal task force and that legislation was needed to "attack the owners and the distributors of these programs, who are reaping enormous profits."[6]

Law career

During the 1970s and early 1980s, Spota worked as a Suffolk prosecutor under District Attorney Patrick Henry. He then entered private law practice in Suffolk, representing clients including the Suffolk Detectives Association and other law enforcement unions.[7]

Education

Spota grew up in New Hyde Park, and graduated from Chaminade High School in Mineola. He earned degrees at Fairfield University in Connecticut and St. John's University School of Law in Queens.[8]

Personal

He lives in Mount Sinai and is married with three grown children.

Controversy

In May 2013 the FBI and the US Attorney's Office opened an investigation into the alleged assault of a suspect in police custody, subsequent cover-up and coercion of witnesses by James Burke, Chief of the Suffolk County Police Department; charges to which the former chief pleaded guilty. The federal inquiry subsequently expanded beyond Mr. Burke to investigate a broader pattern of corruption in both the police department and the office of the Suffolk County district attorney, Thomas J. Spota. [9]

See also

References

  1. ^ Power List 2009 Hall of Fame
  2. ^ THE 2001 ELECTIONS: NASSAU COUNTY; Suozzi Wins Easily in Rebuke of Nassau's G.O.P. Machine
  3. ^ Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas J. Spota sworn in
  4. ^ Suffolk County Board of Elections: 2009 Election Official Results
  5. ^ Suffolk Indicts 12 in Child Porn
  6. ^ Testimony of Mr. Thomas Spota, Suffolk County District Attorney, September 9, 2003
  7. ^ For D.A. in Suffolk and Westchester
  8. ^ Spotlight on DA Thomas Spota
  9. ^ Suffolk County Police Chief Guilty Plea
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