Former state trooper pleads guilty to tipping off gambling raid target
In December 2021, a state trooper alerted the target of a gambling raid to an expansive investigation into the individual's gaming operations.
That tip prompted the target, Louis Ferrari II to take significant steps to thwart the investigation, the former state trooper, Thomas Loewke, admitted in a guilty plea in federal court Wednesday. Loewke, 51, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice before U.S. District Judge David Larimer.
According to the plea, after the tip Ferrari changed the password for a sports betting site, altered the website's appearance and deleted "the history of bets placed through his sports betting website."
A state police sergeant, Loewke was criminally charged in January, accused of obstruction of justice. He retired in August, in the midst of the investigation.
More than a month after Loewke's arrest, federal authorities charged seven local men with allegedly running a gambling operation that took bets on sporting events and hosted illegal poker games in an office suite in the city of Rochester.
Accused are Ferrari, Dominic Sprague, Tommaso Sessa, Anthony Amato, Joseph Lomardo, Joseph Boscarino and James Cilvetti. Ferrari allegedly ran the online betting operation, sport700.com, and prosecutors say that Loewke sometimes placed wagers through the site.
Loewke's sentencing range, under recommended federal guidelines, could run from 10 to 18 months in prison. Assistant U.S. Attorney Meghan McGuire said in court that federal prosecutors contend that the range should be on the higher end because of Loewke's "abuse of trust" as an officer of the law.
Loewke's lawyer, Michael Schiano, intends to argue that the "abuse of trust," which can add months to a federal sentence, should not be applied to the sentence.
Schiano said after the sentencing that Loewke has accepted full responsibility for his crime and now "wants to get on with his life." He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 6.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Thomas Loewke pleads guilty to tipping off gambling raid target
