American police chief of New York who led Gilgo Beach murder investigation arrested for soliciting sex

Ex-Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke arrested on multiple charges

By Edward Era Barbacena 

A former suburban New York police chief, who was in charge of the Gilgo Beach murders investigation before being sentenced to prison in 2016, was arrested again Tuesday after authorities said he solicited sex from an undercover park ranger.

James Burke — the Suffolk County Police Department's chief from 2012 to 2015 — was arrested around 10:15 a.m. at Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park in Farmingville, a hamlet in Long Island. Burke, 58, was arrested by park rangers and charged with offering a sex act, indecent exposure, public lewdness, and criminal solicitation, according to Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison.

Officials said Suffolk County park rangers were conducting an operation in plain clothes because of "numerous complaints about quality of life issues" and people soliciting sex at the park. According to an arrest report obtained by The Associated Press, Burke exposed himself to a ranger and said he was interested in oral sex.

Burke allegedly attempted to avoid arrest by leveraging his status as a former law enforcement official, asking the rangers, "Do you know who I am?" according to officials. As he was being taken into custody, he told the rangers that the arrest would be a "public humiliation for him," Sgt. Brian Quattrini said.

At the time of the incident, Quattrini added that the ranger who arrested Burke did not recognize him. Burke was then taken to a police station for processing.

"Additional charges may be pending and we are still currently trying to ascertain if he's still on federal probation," Harrison said during a news conference Tuesday.

The former Suffolk County police chief had been sentenced to federal prison in 2016 for assault and obstruction of justice. After serving 40 months in prison, he was released in April 2019.

After leading the Suffolk County Police Department for three years, Burke resigned in late 2015 before federal prosecutors charged him for the violent assault of a man in police custody and cover-up of the incident.

During his tenure, the former police chief was under investigation by the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office for the beating of a man who was suspected of stealing pornography, sex toys, and other items from Burke's department vehicle.

Authorities accused Burke of covering up the incident and coercing witnesses with the help of the county's longtime district attorney and top corruption prosecutor. The New York Times reported that the judge in the case said Burke had "corrupted a system" as tried to thwart the FBI's investigation for three years.

Burke also led the high-profile investigation into the murders of several sex workers whose remains were found along a Long Island beach. He has been suspected of impeding the FBI's investigation into the Gilgo Beach murders as other law enforcement officials have accused him of blocking his department's cooperation.

A New York architect was charged with first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of three women in the case earlier this summer.

Prior to becoming Suffolk County's police chief, Burke was a New York City police officer in the mid-1980s. He later moved to the Suffolk County department, one of the largest suburban forces in the nation with 2,500 officers.

As first reported by Newsday, Burke was under an internal department probe in 1995. The report concluded that Burke had a relationship with a woman who participated in prostitution, drug dealing, and had engaged in sex acts in police vehicles while on duty and in uniform.

And in 2016, the Long Island Press reported that an escort accused Burke of paying her for sex during a "cocaine-fueled house party" in Oak Beach in 2011 and had been "extremely aggressive" with her.