Montauk Woman Attacked in Her Bed
A Coast Guardsman stationed on Star Island in Montauk was arrested a little after midnight Saturday and charged by East Hampton Town police with beating up a 67-year-old Montauk woman whom he found asleep in bed.
According to police, Petty Officer Third Class Matthew Patrick McGee, 22, entered a house on Essex Street through an unlocked sliding door, and walked through several rooms until he came upon Margaret Burke.
Interviewed by a detective as she was being treated for multiple cuts and bruises at Southampton Hospital, Mrs. Burke said she had the TV on in a first-floor bedroom, and was dozing off. Her husband, Jay Burke, was asleep in the master bedroom upstairs. She was awakened, she said, by the weight of a man lying on top of her.
She screamed, and the man began striking her repeatedly, she told police, saying, “You bitch, you bitch.” He would not let her look at his face, forcing her head to one side. At one point he began biting her on her back, she said, grunting as he did so. She told the detective she thought she was going to die, and it crossed her mind that the powerfully built intruder might already have murdered her husband.
The ordeal lasted about 20 to 30 minutes, she said, ending only when the man passed out. She managed to get out from under him and ran to the bedroom door, slamming it behind her.
“I was covered in blood,” she told the detective.
Mr. Burke, who had been deeply asleep but was now awake, dialed 911. Police were soon at the house. They forced their way through the bedroom door, which Petty Officer McGee had locked, and arrested him after a brief struggle. At headquarters in Wainscott, his bloodstained clothing was confiscated, and he was given a white jumpsuit. Mrs. Burke was taken to the hospital, where she was treated for her injuries and released.
Petty Officer McGee was charged with burglary in the first degree, a felony, and with obstruction of breathing, assault, and resisting arrest, all misdemeanors. While the charge of burglary is usually associated with a theft, by definition it includes illegal entry with intent to commit a crime, in this case a violent one.
Brian DeSesa of the Adam Miller Group, who represented Petty Officer McGee at his arraignment in East Hampton Town Justice Court on Monday, told Justice Lisa R. Rana that his client had never before been in trouble with the law, and had joined the Coast Guard right out of high school. He has served for three and a half years.
Justice Rana issued an order of protection for Mrs. Burke. She told Mr. McGee the district attorney had asked that his bail be set at $50,000. Mr. DeSesa argued that Mr. McGee was not a flight risk, citing his service to his country and pointing out that his parents were in the courtroom.
Bail was set at $30,000 cash or $60,000 bond. “I believe the district attorney’s office is going to be acting on this swiftly,” Justice Rana said. Mr. DeSesa put Mr. McGee’s parents in touch with a bail bondsman.
“We are fully cooperating with town police,” Senior Chief Petty Officer Eric Best of the Montauk Coast Guard Station said Monday. “We have to let this investigation take its course.” He declined to comment further. Mr. McGee’s parents posted a $60,000 bond on Tuesday.
Petty Officer McGee, whose hometown is Montvale, N.J., had never met Mrs. Burke. It is not clear to police why he chose the Burkes’ house to enter; he told detectives he could not remember anything that happened that night and the arresting officers said he appeared to be under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or both.
It is also not clear how he got to the house, which is set quite far off the street. Essex Street on summer Saturday nights is busy with foot traffic of intoxicated revelers streaming up toward their share houses around the golf course.
Mr. Burke declined to comment on Tuesday, saying only that his wife was “doing much better.” Petty Officer McGee is due back in court this morning.
Police have asked that anyone with knowledge of the events leading up to the incident call them at 631-537-7575.