A 3-2 Appellate Division, Second Department, panel on Friday affirmed a lower court's refusal to knock Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota off the Sept. 10 primary ballot on a claim that he is term limited. The decision affirmed Acting Supreme Court Justice Joseph Farneti, who rejected a bid by Raymond Perini of Perini & Hoerger in Hauppauge, to remove Spota, a Democrat, from the Republican line. Spota has been cross-endorsed by the Republican, Conservative and Independence parties.
With Spota concluding his third term at the end of this year, Perini argued the incumbent was subject to the county's 12-year term limits. Farneti said Acting Supreme Court Justice Ralph Gazzillo had already found the county's term limits did not apply to the district attorney slot, which is governed by state law, and thus Farneti declined to rule on a matter already adjudicated by a court of coordinate jurisdiction (NYLJ, Aug. 12).
