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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.
“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.
Who were the Gilgo Beach victims?
Suspected serial killer Rex Heuermann — a New York City architect and married dad of two — was arrested in connection with the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach murders. The arrest is tied to the so-called “Gilgo Four,” women found wrapped in burlap within days of each other in late 2010.
The years-long investigation that led to the arrest revolved around the discovery of more than 10 sets of human remains along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County between December 2010 and April 2011.
Most victims were petite female sex workers with green or hazel eyes. But there were also two exceptions: a 2-year-old girl and a young Asian man.
Melissa Barthelemy, 24
- Barthelemy was a sex worker who lived in the Unionport section of the Bronx and dreamed of one day opening her own beauty salon. She was last seen alive in her basement apartment on Underhill Avenue on July 12, 2009.
Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25
- Brainard-Barnes was living in Norwich, Connecticut. She went missing after taking an Amtrak train from New London, Connecticut, to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan on July 6, 2007. Her remains were found in December 2010.
Amber Lynn Costello, 27
- Costello, 27, was a sex worker and heroin addict who lived in West Babylon, New York, at a home with a woman and two men. She advertised on Craigslist and Backpage to support her and her roommates’ drug habits. Costello was found on December 13, 2010 after having been last seen leaving her home September 2, 2010.
Megan Waterman, 22
- Waterman, a 22-year-old mom of one, was last seen on June 6, 2010. She lived in Scarborough, Maine, and earned a living as an escort. She was last seen by her family boarding a New York-bound Concord Trailways bus in Maine. Her body was found on December 13, 2010, on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach.
Jessica Taylor, 20
- Remains belonging to Jessica Taylor, a 20-year-old woman working as an escort in New York City, were found in a wooded area in Manorville on July 26, 2003. Her additional remains — initially labeled “Jane Doe No. 5” — were discovered on March 29, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.
Valerie Mack, 24
- Valerie Mack was 24 years old and living in Philadelphia when she went missing. She worked as an escort, using the alias “Melissa Taylor.” Relatives last saw Mack in the spring or summer of 2000 in Port Republic, New Jersey, but she was never reported as missing to the police. Her partial skeletal remains were found in Manorville in September 2000 but were initially known as “Jane Doe No. 6.” More bones were found on April 4, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.
Unidentified Asian man
- The skeletal remains of a yet-to-be-identified Asian man were found along Ocean Parkway on April 4, 2011. It is estimated that the man was between 17 and 23 years old at the time of his death. He was approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall with bad teeth.
‘Peaches’ and her daughter
- An African American woman’s partial remains were discovered in Hempstead Lake State Park back in 1997, and she had become known as “Peaches” because of a bitten tattoo of a peach on her left breast. On April 4, 2011, police uncovered the remains of a toddler, who was about 2 years old at the time of her death. DNA testing confirmed that one of the skeletons was that of the 2-year-old girl’s mother, “Peaches.”
Karen Vergata
- A victim previously referred to as Jane Doe No. 7 has been identified as 34-year-old Manhattan woman Karen Vergata. Vergata is believed to have disappeared around Feb. 14, 1996, two months later her legs were found in a plastic bag at a park near Fire Island’s Blue Point Beach. At the time of her disappearance, Vergata was believed to have been working as an escort. Two sets of Vergata’s remains were identified in August 2023.
Shannan Gilbert, 23
- Gilbert was a Craigslist escort who lived in Jersey City, traveled with her driver Michael Pak from Manhattan to meet a client, Joseph Brewer, at his home in the Oak Beach Association on the morning of May 1, 2010. She spoke with two neighbors before disappearing. Her body was discovered in a marsh near Oak Beach — about half a mile from where she was last seen alive — on December 13, 2011.
“Chief Burke’s involvement in the sex trade has been going on for decades — and apparently continues,” he told The Post. “I believe it is one of the main reasons the Gilgo Beach serial killer case remained unsolved for over 13 years.”
Tierney, the district attorney, said Burke’s long, shadowy history should have barred him from ever serving as the county’s top cop.
“I think the press conference was probably 11 years too late,” Tierney said. “The Suffolk County leadership should have never placed this guy in a position of power.”
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