James Burke, the disgraced ex-Suffolk County police chief who was busted for allegedly soliciting sex in a Long Island park, exposed himself and began masturbating in front of a plainclothes ranger just before he was cuffed, according to an arrest report obtained by The Post.
Burke, 58, allegedly pulled down his pants, took out his penis and manipulated it in a sexual manner before telling the park ranger that he likes “sucking d–k,” the arrest report states.
Burke — who botched the Gilgo Beach murders probe and served time in federal prison for beating a crook who stole his dildo and porn stash — was picked up around 10:15 a.m. Tuesday in the Suffolk County Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park in Farmingville.
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison announced the arrest later Tuesday, saying only that Burke was busted for “soliciting sexual engagement.”
The arrest has only further stained the already dreadful reputation of the county’s former top cop, who was sentenced in November 2016 to 46 months behind bars for assault and obstruction of justice after beating suspect Christopher Loeb in 2012 for stealing Burke’s stash of sex goodies. He was released from federal prison in 2018.
Burke also had drug-addled trysts with hookers and once fled from a drunken wreck, according to court records and various reports.
He has been charged with offering a sex act, public lewdness, indecent exposure and criminal solicitation for the Tuesday morning encounter, according to police officials.
Burke was given a summons and told to answer the charges in court on Sept. 11, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.
Nobody answered the door at Burke’s home in Smithtown, Long Island, when a reporter from The Post knocked Wednesday afternoon. The window shades were drawn and a sheet covered the bay window facing the street.
Before his newest arrest, neighbors said Burke lived a relatively low-profile life in the Long Island suburb.
“He’s out jogging most days, but other than that you don’t see nobody come in, nobody leaving,” said one neighbor, who asked that he not be identified. “He’s low-key.”
Another neighbor — a woman who lives nearby — said Burke was an intensely private person who “doesn’t like people looking at him” and doesn’t make eye contact when he sees others in public.
“He’s the only person I’ve ever met who built a 6-foot-tall picket fence around his deck — his second-floor deck!” the woman said. “Safe to say he doesn’t want people to know what’s going in his yard or in his house … who knows what’s going on?”
The rangers — who were patrolling an area well-known as a public hookup spot for derelicts — 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 said.
The rangers arrested him anyway.