Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the conviction of another Church-suing top cop:
Thomas Spota, who served as the District Attorney of Suffolk County for many years, was convicted yesterday of covering up for a police chief who brutally beat a handcuffed man for stealing sex toys and pornography from his car. If this were all there were to this story, it wouldn’t be worth mentioning. But there’s more.
In the early 2000s, following revelations of clergy sexual abuse by the Boston Globe, Spota impaneled a Long Island grand jury to probe the Diocese of Rockville Centre. He knew full well he could not prosecute anyone because of the statute of limitations, but that didn’t matter. He never cross examined witnesses and refused to allow officials from the diocese to testify. Worse, he leaked a copy of the grand jury report to Newsday before the diocese had a chance to respond.
Spota is the third top cop with a vendetta against the Catholic Church to wind up behind bars.
In 2017, Seth Williams, the Philadelphia District Attorney, was sentenced to five years in prison on multiple counts of bribery, extortion, and fraud. He even robbed money set aside to pay for his own mother’s nursing home care, using it to fund his lavish lifestyle.
Williams tried desperately to railroad accused priests, relying on the testimony of Danny Gallagher, a.k.a. “Billy Doe,” an alleged victim. He was described by journalist Ralph Cipriano as “a former drug addict, heroin dealer, habitual liar, third-rate conman and thief [who] made up the whole story.” As a result, four innocent men were sent to jail.
The third loser top cop to be sent to the slammer was Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane. She started the state-wide grand jury probe of the Catholic Church that was ultimately picked up by her discredited successor, Josh Shapiro. She was sentenced in 2016 for leaking sealed, confidential grand jury documents to the media and for lying under oath.
The Catholic League clashed with Spota, Williams, and Kane on many occasions. While they were not imprisoned for their misdeeds against the Catholic Church, their flawed character—which we observed many times—ultimately caught up with them in a criminal way.
Interestingly, even though the three of them are Catholic, they all harbored an animus against Catholicism. It would be good for them to reflect on their predicament this Christmas season. Redemption may be at hand.
