It was.
"At trial, another of Loeb’s assailants, former Detective Anthony Leto, testified that he went along with the scheme because “I feared for everything—my job, my partners, my well-being, my family—everything.”
The third, Lt. James Hickey, who had also by then retired, was the only one to directly testify that Spota and McPartland were involved in the cover-up, telling the jury that “if you crossed Tom Spota, Chris McPartland, Jimmy Burke, you crossed all.”
“They will destroy you. Personally, financially, criminally. They will go after your family,” he insisted, adding: “They know no bounds.”