Thomas J. Spargo

Last updated

Thomas J. Spargo is an American former judge and disbarred attorney from the state of New York. Spargo is notable for having been removed from a state court judgeship in 2006, and for being convicted of federal attempted bribery and attempted extortion charges in 2009. [1] [2] [3]

Spargo, who resides in East Berne, New York, was elected to the post of Berne Town Justice in 1999. [4] A Republican, he is also "a former top election law attorney who went to bat in Florida for George W. Bush after the disputed 2000 presidential election". Spargo was elected to the New York Supreme Court (a trial-level court) [5] in the Third Judicial District in 2001. While Spargo's chambers were located in Albany, New York, he heard Ulster County cases. [1]

In 2006, the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct issued a determination that Spargo should be removed from the bench. The Commission found that Spargo had engaged in improper political activity in his 1999 campaign for Berne Town Justice. [6] [7] Spargo opted to accept the determination and did not appeal it to the New York Court of Appeals. [8] Spargo was also barred from ever holding judicial office again in the state of New York. [9]

Spargo was indicted on federal corruption charges on December 10, 2008. [10] He was alleged to have sought bribes from attorneys who had cases in his courtroom; he allegedly did so because he needed money to pay legal fees in connection with judicial misconduct charges. On August 27, 2009, Spargo was convicted by a federal jury of attempted extortion and attempted solicitation of a bribe for pressuring a lawyer to contribute $10,000 to his defense fund. On December 21, 2009, he was sentenced to 27 months in prison. Spargo was also disbarred in December 2009. [2] [9] [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynne Stewart</span> American lawyer

Lynne Irene Stewart was an American defense attorney who was known for representing controversial, famous defendants. She herself was convicted on charges of conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists in 2005, and sentenced to 28 months in prison. Her felony conviction led to her being automatically disbarred. She was convicted of helping pass messages from her client Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian cleric convicted of planning terror attacks, to his followers in al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, an organization designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States Secretary of State.

Operation Greylord was an investigation conducted jointly by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Chicago Police Department Internal Affairs Division and the Illinois State Police into corruption in the judiciary of Cook County, Illinois. The FBI named the investigation "Operation Greylord" after the curly wigs worn by British judges.

Clarence Norman Jr. is a former American politician from the state of New York. He was the former chairman of the Kings County Democratic Party and member of the New York State Assembly from the 43rd Assembly District in Central Brooklyn, which includes Crown Heights and parts of Flatbush and Prospect Heights.

Gerald Phillip Garson was an American lawyer and New York Supreme Court Justice who heard matrimonial divorce and child custody cases in Brooklyn. He was convicted in 2007 of accepting bribes to manipulate the outcomes of divorce proceedings. Garson was imprisoned from June 2007 until December 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dean Skelos</span> American politician

Dean George Skelos is an American former politician from Long Island, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loretta Preska</span> American judge (born 1949)

Loretta A. Preska is an American lawyer who serves as a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Born in Albany, Preska received law degrees from Fordham University School of Law and New York University School of Law. She practiced law in New York City from 1973 to 1992 at the law firms of Cahill Gordon & Reindel and Hertzog, Calamari & Gleason. President George H. W. Bush appointed her to the district bench in 1992. She served as chief judge of the court for a seven-year term from 2009 to 2016, and took senior status in 2017. President George W. Bush nominated Preska to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2008, but the Senate did not act on the nomination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Yagman</span> American lawyer

Stephen Yagman is an American federal civil rights lawyer, who also handles criminal defense and habeas corpus matters. He has a reputation for being an exceptionally zealous advocate in cases regarding allegations of police brutality. He has argued hundreds of federal civil rights cases before a jury, and has been involved in over a hundred and fifty federal appeals and certiorari petitions before the United States Supreme Court.

Kenneth Michael Karas is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Ciavarella</span> American convicted felon, former judge

Mark Arthur Ciavarella Jr. is an American convicted felon and former President Judge of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, who was involved, along with fellow judge Michael Conahan, in the "Kids for cash" scandal in 2008, for which he was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison in 2011.

Peter J. Cammarano III is an American disbarred attorney, former Democratic politician and a convicted felon. He was the 37th mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, serving from July 1 until July 31, 2009. Cammarano was arrested by the FBI on corruption charges on July 23, 2009, as part of an international criminal investigation known as Operation Bid Rig; he resigned from office eight days later. He pleaded guilty to extortion in April 2010 and was later sentenced to 24 months in federal prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kids for cash scandal</span> Judicial kickbacks case in Pennsylvania

The kids for cash scandal centered on judicial kickbacks to two judges at the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, US. In 2008, judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella were convicted of accepting money in return for imposing harsh adjudications on juveniles to increase occupancy at a private prison operated by PA Child Care.

Gerald Steven Pigeon, usually cited in newspaper accounts as Steve Pigeon, is a Democratic politician from Western New York. A controversial figure in contemporary Western New York politics, Pigeon was Erie County Democratic Chairman from 1996 to 2002, parlaying his clout to become an advisor to State Senator Pedro Espada Jr., Tom Golisano, and Clare Bronfman of NXIVM. He is a convict serving concurrent sentences for federal and state corruption charges to which he has confessed. He is also accused of sexual assault of a child, which he denies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William J. Jefferson corruption case</span> United States corruption case

The corruption case against then Louisiana Representative William J. Jefferson in the United States started on a suspicion of bribery. The FBI raided his Congressional offices in May 2006. He was re-elected to his seat in the fall. On June 4, 2007, a federal grand jury indicted Jefferson on sixteen charges related to corruption. Jefferson was defeated by Republican Joseph Cao on December 6, 2008, and was the most senior Democratic incumbent to lose re-election that year. In 2009 he was tried in the US District Court in Virginia on corruption charges. On August 5, 2009, he was found guilty of 11 of the 16 corruption counts. Jefferson was sentenced to 13 years on November 13, 2009 - the longest sentence ever given to a representative for bribery or any charge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R. Seth Williams</span> Former district attorney

Rufus Seth Williams is a former district attorney of the city of Philadelphia. He began his term January 4, 2010. He formerly served as an assistant district attorney. Williams was the first African-American district attorney in Philadelphia and in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. On March 21, 2017, Williams was indicted on 23 counts of bribery, extortion, and fraud. His trial began June 19, 2017. He resigned and pleaded guilty to one charge on June 29, 2017.

McDonnell v. United States, 579 U.S. 550 (2016), was a United States Supreme Court case concerning the appeal of former Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell's conviction for honest services fraud and Hobbs Act extortion. At issue on appeal was whether the definition of "official act" within the federal bribery statutes encompassed the actions for which McDonnell had been convicted and whether the jury had been properly instructed on this definition at trial.

References

  1. 1 2 Gavin, Robert (December 22, 2009). "It's federal prison for Spargo". Times Union. Retrieved March 9, 2020.
  2. 1 2 Dwoskin, Elizabeth (October 25, 2014). "Thomas Spargo -- Bush Campaign Operative Turned NY Judge -- Gets 27 Months in Prison for Bribery, Extortion". Village Voice. Archived from the original on 2014-10-25. Retrieved March 9, 2020.
  3. ↑ "Former state Supreme Court judge sentenced to more than two years | The Daily Gazette". dailygazette.com. 22 December 2009.
  4. ↑ "Spargo sentencing spurs sympathy in Berne". The Altamont Enterprise.
  5. ↑ "Structure of the Courts".
  6. ↑ "Hilltowns, April 6, 2006" . Retrieved 13 May 2023.
  7. ↑ Foderaro, Lisa W. (April 1, 2006). "State Panel Recommends Ouster of Judge in Albany". The New York Times.
  8. ↑ Joel Stashenko (31 March 2006). "State Supreme Court Justice Spargo won't appeal removal from bench". Albany Business Review. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
  9. 1 2 "Former NY Supreme Court Judge Convicted of Extortion | Village Voice". October 25, 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-10-25.
  10. ↑ Canfield, Dave (10 December 2008). "Ex-Judge Tom Spargo indicted by feds for corruption". Troyrecord.
  11. ↑ "Matter of Spargo (2009 NY Slip Op 08941)". www.nycourts.gov.


Scale of justice 2.svg

This biography of a judge in the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.