Disgraced former Suffolk County police chief James Burke arrested for soliciting sex in Long Island park
Already-disgraced ex-Suffolk County police chief James Burke was arrested Tuesday morning for soliciting a sex worker inside a Farmingville park, Long Island officials announced.
Burke, who joined the county police department in 1986, was busted by county police, with the Suffolk County district attorney’s office saying he was charged with public lewdness and exposure of a person. Suffolk County executive spokeswoman Marykate Guilfoyle said he’d face charges of soliciting a sex act and criminal solicitation, too.
Additional possible charges were pending against the ex-lawman.
The one-time county chief of department pleaded guilty in 2016 after resigning his police position for assaulting a suspect in custody after the man broke into his department vehicle. He admitted to violating the civil rights of the victim and then orchestrating the cover-up of his crime.
The 59-year-old Burke, who was promoted to the high-ranking position in 2012, tried to avoid jail by claiming he needed to assist his cancer-stricken mom. He was a 31-year veteran of the department.
Officials say the new arrest came at 10:15 a.m., with Burke taken into custody at the Suffolk County Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park. Suffolk County Park Rangers placed Burke under arrest, authorities said.
Rangers had been monitoring the site in the wake of complaints people had been soliciting sex there when Burke allegedly attempted to do so with a plainclothes officer.
“Due to actions which I am not going to share, this individual was placed under arrest,” Suffolk County Commissioner Rodney Harrison said at a press conference.
“He identified himself and said who he was, ‘Do you know who I am?’” another official said of Burke.
“He was expressing to us how this would be a public embarassment to him,” a third official added.
Burke was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison after his convictions in the Dec. 14, 2012 beating of the Smithtown man who was handcuffed and in custody at the Fourth Precinct in Suffolk County. He faced a possible sentence of 20 years at his Feb. 26, 2016 court appearance.
Critics also questioned Burke’s handling of the Gilgo Beach killings, with the first three victims discovered in late 2010 on Long Island. Not long after he was appointed chief of police in 2011, Burke cut ties with FBI investigators assisting in the probe of the killing spree.
The cases went unsolved until earlier this year ,when Massapequa Park man Rex Heuermann was arrested for the killings.
Prosecutors said at the time of Burke’s 2012 arrest that they had 11 cooperating police officers who witnessed the beatdown. Burke admitted to beating heroin addict Christopher Loeb after the man broke into his department SUV outside the officer’s home.
The thief made off with a duffel bag holding a gun belt, ammunition, handcuffs, several sex toys and a box of cigars.
Loeb reached a $1.5 million federal court settlement with Suffolk County after bringing a lawsuit in the case.
