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Disgraced ex-Suffolk County police chief who botched Gilgo Beach case and beat up porn thief accused of soliciting sex — at 10 a.m.
By Jared Downing and Steve Janoski
August 22, 2023 2:38pm Updated
The disgraced ex-Suffolk County police chief who botched the Gilgo Beach murder probe — and who went to federal prison for beating a crook who stole his dildo and porn stash — was arrested Tuesday morning for soliciting sex in a Long Island park.
James Burke, 59, was picked up in the Suffolk County Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park in Farmingville by park rangers at about 10:15 a.m. for “soliciting sexual engagement,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison told reporters.
Suffolk County spokesperson Marykate Guilfoyle said that authorities arrested Burke because he “solicited sexual acts from the plainclothes ranger.”
The rangers didn’t know who Burke was — until he identified himself and tried to worm out of the arrest by saying it would be a “public humiliation,” police officials said.
The officers were not swayed.
Authorities later brought Burke to the 6th Precinct for processing, where he was charged with offering a sex act, public lewdness, indecent exposure and criminal solicitation, Harrison said at a press briefing.
Harrison wouldn’t say what Burke did that led to his arrest — only that it involved plainclothes rangers who were sent to the park because of continuing complaints about sexual activity there.
Burke was released with a summons, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. He will answer the charges in court on Sept. 11.
The allegations will further blacken the reputation of the county’s former top cop, who admitted that he roughed up suspect Christopher Loeb in 2012 for snatching his sick stash of sex goodies.
Burke also had drug-addled trysts with hookers and once fled from a drunken wreck, according to court records and various reports.
He was sentenced in November 2016 to 46 months behind bars for assault and obstruction of justice, and was released from federal prison in 2018.
The park in which Burke was arrested has been known as a hotspot for illicit activity for some time, according to police officials and Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney.
“We had heard that this activity — while it’s never really welcome — was continuing through the hours when families and children use the park,” Tierney told The Post.
“I think, unfortunately, this place has always been known as a place where that kind of activity occurs,” he added. “I guess it had ramped up and there were a lot of community complaints.”
A man who was smoking in his car told The Post that everyone knows when undercover cops descend on the park — “It’s obvious,” he said.
“The two guys come, go into the woods, make eye contact,” the man said. “They get you to agree to stuff, then they give you a citation. They don’t normally handcuff you or anything … it’s really hard to believe they brought this guy down to the station.”
The man — who did not want to be identified — said the spot is a well-known hookup place for derelicts.
Burke was previously sentenced to 46 months in prison for assault and obstruction of justice.
“Everyone knows what’s going on,” he said. “The guys up here, they do anything they want to each other. They go into random corners and do whatever. Depends how horny they are.”
Attorney John Ray, who represents the families of Gilgo Beach victims Jessica Taylor and Shannan Gilbert, also said Burke did a bare-bones investigation into the serial murder case, freezing out the FBI and other agencies working on the discovery of 11 bodies along Long Island’s South Shore in 2010.
Former state Sen. Phil Boyle has long been critical of Burke’s handling of the Gilgo Beach killings — even going so far as to ask the state to look into the former top cop’s actions.
On Tuesday, Boyle reiterated that he believes Burke hampered efforts to solve the case for years.
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