A former New York police chief who led the investigation into the Long Island serial killings before he was sent to prison for beating a suspect was arrested again Tuesday, this time for allegedly soliciting sex in a public park. James Burke, who led the Suffolk County Police Department from 2012 to 2015, was nabbed shortly after 10am at a park in the Long Island hamlet of Farmingville, where he allegedly exposed himself to a park ranger in plain clothes. Park rangers had been conducting an operation in response to "numerous complaints about quality of life issues," officials said, per USA Today. Burke, 58, allegedly said he was interested in oral sex.
He was charged with offering a sex act, indecent exposure, public lewdness, and criminal solicitation, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said at a Tuesday press conference, per USA Today. "Additional charges may be pending and we are still currently trying to ascertain if he's still on federal probation," Harrison added. Burke—whose probation ended last year, per the AP—resigned in late 2015 before federal prosecutors charged him with leading a conspiracy to cover-up his role in assaulting a handcuffed man who'd stolen sex toys, pornography, and other items from Burke's unlocked police vehicle. Burke pleaded guilty to assault and obstruction and served 40 months in prison before his release in April 2019.
More than two decades earlier, he'd survived an internal department investigation that concluded he engaged in sex acts in police vehicles while on duty and had a relationship with a prostitute, the AP reports. Officials said Burke tried to avoid Tuesday's arrest by playing upon his position as a former law enforcement official, asking the rangers, "Do you know who I am?" He also claimed the arrest would be a "public humiliation for him," Sgt. Brian Quattrini said Tuesday. The ranger who arrested Burke didn't recognize him, Quattrini added. (More arrest stories.)
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