Disgraced ex-Gilgo Beach cop James Burke was arrested in an area known for gay cruises and known as “Pickle Park” when he was involved in a coordinated operation by undercover cops.
Burke, 59, was arrested by Suffolk County Parks Rangers at Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Park in Farmingville at 10:15 a.m. Tuesday after allegedly offering oral sex to an undercover male park ranger.
Burke, once the senior police officer in Suffolk County, was less than 10 miles from his home in Smithtown and was driving a Rhode Island-licensed rental car when he was apprehended by authorities in the Bald Hill and North Ocean Avenue area.
Some longtime Suffolk County residents, who asked not to be named, told that there are many pickle parks throughout the county and that they are a “breeding ground for homosexual activity, prostitution and drugs”.
Disgraced former Suffolk County Police Officer James Burke leaves the Sixth Precinct Tuesday afternoon after being arrested on multiple sexual misconduct charges
The Suffolk County Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Farmingville and the location where James Burke was arrested Tuesday morning for soliciting an undercover parking attendant for sex
A Suffolk County Police vehicle is seen outside Burke’s home in Smithtown on Wednesday
When stopped at the scene on a rainy Thursday afternoon, there were several parked cars, some empty while others were occupied by men.
Two men were seen talking – one seated in his vehicle and the other standing in front of his car.
A few yards away, another man was seen smoking a substance while a pile of beer bottles sat on the roof of the car. There were no women there.
An unknown source and longtime Suffolk County resident told that all park and ride lots (parking lots) on the freeway are called “Pickle Parks” because they are known for homosexual activity.
Some other areas known as “Pickle Parks” are the Long Island Expressway and Wicks Road, the Long Island Expressway and 110, the Long Island Expressway, and Patchogue and Holbrook Road.
There is a signal that the men use to show their interest and availability.
“They drive around until someone flashes their headlights,” the source said. “Then they come towards her.”
Following the shock arrest at Vietnam Memorial Park in Suffolk County, Burke was charged with soliciting a sexual act, indecent exposure, public indecency and criminal incitement fifth degree.
He was released by the Sixth Precinct Tuesday afternoon, but it’s unclear where he’s spent his time since his release.
He is due to be tried in Islip on September 11th.
In July, exclusively reported that Burke had screwed up the investigation into the Gilgo Beach serial killer and lived a double life that allegedly included smoking crack, cross-dressing and relationships with prostitutes.
Attorney John Ray, who represents the families of Shannan Gilbert, 27, and Jessica Taylor, 20, whose bodies were found on the beach between 1996 and 2011, told that the former Long Island Police Commissioner has a “real devotion to.” promoting prostitution ‘in his own backyard’.
“He investigated sex workers like a robber investigates robbers,” Ray said.
Ray didn’t seem surprised by Burke’s recent arrest at the park, telling he “loves the excitement of risk”.
“I’ve represented several clients who, like Burke, got arrested in the park.” “It’s a place for sex nights and ‘casual’ sex,” Ray said.
He added, “Burke was a street savvy who was praised by his own disciplinarian for his knowledge of the streets when he was a cop, so he would have known there was a high risk of arrests in this area.”
The undercover ranger, a member of the Suffolk County Park Rangers’ Targeted Response Unit who arrested Burke, was at the scene Tuesday morning conducting routine surveillance after there were a spate of complaints at the park, Suffolk spokeswoman MaryKate Guilfoyle said County, to .
When Burke was arrested, he reportedly asked the park ranger, “Do you know who I am?” The park rangers had no idea who he was.
At a news conference Tuesday before the Sixth Precinct, law enforcement officials said that when Burke identified himself, he tried to evade arrest, saying it was a “public humiliation.”
A source told the police report was reportedly very “graphic”.
“Burke was apparently enjoying himself when he was approached by the undercover ranger, and Burke reportedly told the officer how much he loves sucking cock,” the source said.
was denied a copy of the police report when asked because the case was “an ongoing criminal case”.
Suffolk County Commissioner Raymond Harrison held a news conference Tuesday outside the Sixth Circuit where Burke was transferred. The district is near the memorial park
James Burke, the disgraced former chief of police for Suffolk County, has been accused of obstructing the investigation into serial killer Gilgo Beach by excluding the FBI from the case at an early stage
Burke was photographed outside an FBI office in New York in 2015 after he was arrested and charged with hitting a thief who took a bag of porn and sex toys from his squad car and then trying to cover up the attack
The site of the stabbing was in one of two parking lots near Suffolk County’s Vietnam Memorial on Bald Hill, the highest point on Long Island in Farmingville.
The memorial was built to commemorate the residents of Suffolk County who served their country during the Vietnam War.
It was established in 1991 under the direction of the Suffolk County Vietnam Veterans Memorial Commission.
Gilbert made an 911 call before she disappeared in 2010, and the subsequent search for her led police to discover the remains of the serial killer’s victims – all were found unharmed and wrapped in burlap sacks. A total of eleven bodies were found on this stretch of coast.
Ray claimed that Burke stopped working on Gilbert’s case, calling her death an accident, even though she had a wound on her neck resulting from a drill.
“When Burke became police chief, it was harrowing when he closed the case. “It was a real eye opener,” he said.
Before becoming Suffolk County’s chief police officer, Burke was involved in a series of prostitute and drug scandals, including a tryst in his police car with one of them.
A police investigation revealed that Burke left at least one of the women alone in his squad car with his service pistol in the back seat.
According to Ray, Burke had a long-standing relationship with at least two sex workers. He met Lowrita Rickenbacker while patrolling Wyandanch’s infamous Albany Avenue. The other was Heather Malone, who had operated a prostitution ring from her hair salon in St. James since the early 1990s.
Rickenbacker had a criminal record with a total of 42 felonies and misdemeanors. Ray represented her for assault in exchange for information on Burke. She told him the couple often dated at his home in Ronkonkoma, smoked crack together, and he indulged in his fetish of cross-dressing.
An anonymous source also told that Rickenbacker became pregnant during one of those dates and they now have a grown child together.
Burke’s other lover, Malone, often accompanied Burke to work events.
Ray claimed that Burke was seen on two occasions in women’s clothing — specifically women’s underwear — during a sex match at a Wading River hotel with an Oregon sex worker.
Burke punched Christopher Loeb (pictured), who stole a bag from the police chief’s car that contained porn and sex toys
He was again seen in women’s clothing when a private investigator Ray works with saw him driving in his car. When he learned the investigator was stalking him, he reportedly hit the gas.
“Here’s the police chief… Just before he becomes police chief, he lives with a woman who has a beeper who runs a prostitution ring and goes to his home in Ronkonkoma with another woman and disguises himself as a woman.” “And smoking crack with a sex worker,” Ray said.
“And it’s been done several times.” This is the chief of police for this great county.’
Despite Burke’s double life, he continued to climb the ranks in the police force. He was also described by peers as a “psychopath” who was always “horny” and thought he was “untouchable”.
In 2011, he was appointed chief of the Suffolk County Police Department by his longtime mentor, then-Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota.
Spota had regularly successfully helped Burke avoid legal troubles throughout their decades-long friendship. He later served five years in prison for obstruction of justice for trying to cover up for Burke.
Before becoming chief of police, Burke was chief detective in Thomas Spota’s office. He said Burke served as the de facto detective chief for the entire county.
Melissa Barthelemy, top left, Amber Costello, top right, Megan Waterman, bottom left, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Long Island authorities vow to continue investigation into Gilgo Beach murders
Just a year after his promotion to Suffolk County’s senior uniformed police officer, Burke was accused of assaulting a man identified as Christopher Loeb during interrogation after he stole a bag containing pornography and sex toys from the officer’s police car. The bag also contained cigars and a prescription for Viagra.
After the attack, Burke relied on Spota and his personal friend Christopher McPartland, then the former chief investigator and chief of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office of Government Corruption, to ensure that the detectives and officers who had witnessed Loeb’s beating would remain calm .
After a two-year investigation by the FBI, which also involved at least 10 police officers who spoke out about the cover-up, Burke was charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice and violate Loeb’s civil rights. In 2016 he was sentenced to 46 months in prison.
Burke’s cohorts — Spota and McPartland — were convicted in 2021 of obstructing a federal civil rights investigation and each sentenced to five years in prison, according to the US Attorney’s Eastern District.