UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

August Term 2022

(Argued: October 20, 2022 Decided: August 25, 2023)

Nos. 21-1999-cr, 21-2004-cr

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Appellee,

-v.-

CHRISTOPHER MCPARTLAND, THOMAS J. SPOTA,

Defendants-Appellants.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Before: LIVINGSTON, Chief Judge, NARDINI and MENASHI, Circuit Judges.

Defendants-Appellants Christopher McPartland and Thomas J. Spota appeal from their judgments of conviction in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Azrack, J.). Following a five-week jury trial, Defendants-Appellants were convicted on counts of conspiracy to tamper with witnesses and obstruct an official proceeding, substantive witness tampering and obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of justice, and being accessories after the fact to the deprivation of the civil rights of a victim. The district court

1 sentenced Defendants-Appellants, principally, to five years’ imprisonment each. On appeal, Defendants-Appellants raise challenges to the district court’s admission of certain testimony at trial—in particular, testimony about subordinates’ fear of retaliation and testimony about bad acts that formed the basis for that fear of retaliation. Defendants-Appellants also challenge the district court’s denial of their application to admit the government’s bill of particulars, and McPartland challenges the district court’s denial of his motion for an evidentiary hearing and new trial. We find Defendants-Appellants’ arguments to be without merit. Accordingly, the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED. FOR APPELLEE: JUSTINA GERACI, Assistant United States Attorney (Jo Ann M. Navickas, Nicole Boeckmann, and Michael Maffei, Assistant United States Attorneys, and Lara Treinis Gatz, Special Assistant United States Attorney, on the brief), for Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Brooklyn, NY. FOR DEFENDANTS-APPELLANTS: LARRY H. KRANTZ, Krantz & Berman LLP, New York, NY (Lisa Cahill, Krantz & Berman LLP, New York, NY; Bradley Gershel, Ballard Spahr LLP, New York, NY, on the brief), for Defendant-Appellant Christopher McPartland.

ALAN VINEGRAD, Covington & Burling LLP, New York, NY (Erin Monju, Covington & Burling LLP, New York, NY, on the brief), for Defendant-Appellant Thomas J. Spota. DEBRA ANN LIVINGSTON, Chief Judge:

This is an appeal by two former prosecutors—Defendants-Appellants Thomas J. Spota, previously the Suffolk County District Attorney, and Christopher

2 McPartland, previously the chief of the Government Corruption Bureau for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office (“SCDAO”)—who were convicted for their roles in covering up an assault carried out by James Burke, then the police c