This is what I heard really happened that caused this case to be re-opened. Burke caused the Joint Gang Task Force to be disbanded. My guess is he didn’t want the FEDS looking over his shoulder. They started downplaying the crimes that appeared to be gang related to show the public this was a good and effective way to deal with gang activity.
A JGTF detective and others knew this was a cover-up and a lie. The detective started accessing the Reckless Endangerment complaints, or the random shootings or drive by shootings that suggested gang activity. The detective began giving this information to a reporter. The reporter started writing stories that suggested the whole truth wasn’t being told. It doesn’t take long to figure out who was doing that and so they wire-tapped the detective’s phone. The wiretap picked up numerous conversations with the FBI and US attorney’s office. The dummies listened to all those conversations. There is no excuse for any law enforcement officer to listen in on a conversation of a federal agent. They did it anyway. What they heard was not flattering to some people in the SCPD (Burke) and the DA office. This caused Tom Spota to be enraged that the FEDS would be speaking so despairingly about his office and his favorite cops in the PD. He and two others set up a meeting with US attorney Loretta Lynch. The dummies brought the tapes and told Lynch she should take the federal agents to task for their candid conversations on the tape. I am told General Lynch was aghast. She closed the meeting and thanked Spota, McPartland, and Constant for coming and advising her of this situation. They left and she went ballistic and put a HIT out on Spota and his crew.
The detectives was arrested, pleads guilty to a minor charge and was forced to resign and ended what most people that know this case said it was a stellar career.
Bellone lauds Burke in a State of the County address and tells everyone that Burke ending the federal task force was the right thing to do. He was later forced to re-instate the unit but filled it with inexperienced detectives. And this is why you see in current news stories that the new commissioner needs to repair relations with the federal government.
This people ( Spota and Burke) are so corrupt, jaded, and stupid they didn’t realize you just can’t listen in on a conversation with a federal law enforcement officer and compounded the felony by telling the US attorney that they did so.