Authorities: USCG petty officer attacks sleeping Montauk woman

A Coast Guard petty officer invaded a Montauk home and pounced on a 67-year-old woman as she slept, attacking her for an “extended period,” authorities said Monday.

A bloodied Margaret Burke escaped the Saturday night attack, and when police kicked open the locked door of the bedroom to reveal a sight her husband said he’ll never forget: The attacker, a stranger, was asleep.

“There he was, laying on the bed, in a pool of my wife’s blood,” said Jay Burke, 66.

Matthew Patrick McGee, 22, of Montauk, was charged with burglary, assault, criminal obstruction of breathing and resisting arrest after he broke into the house about 11:35 p.m., East Hampton Town police said.

McGee is a petty officer third class at the Montauk station, a Coast Guard official there said.

East Hampton Police Capt. Christopher Anderson said McGee has no criminal record but appeared to be under the influence of drugs, alcohol or a combination.

“The officers noted that he was impaired by the use of some sort of intoxicant, clearly,” Anderson said.

McGee, who is from New Jersey and joined the Coast Guard out of high school, does not remember what happened, said his attorney Brian DeSesa of Bridgehampton. “He’s still trying to figure everything out,” DeSesa said.

Jay Burke called the episode “surreal” and “overwhelming.”

He said his wife, trying toget away from his heavy snoring in their bedroom upstairs, had gone to sleep in a downstairs bedroom. There, McGee choked, punched and bit her in what she told her husband was a 40-minute attack.

“I didn’t hear anything,” he said. “My wife made it halfway up the stairs screaming and of course I finally heard her. She was bloody, extremely bloody. My first [thought] was she must have fell down the stairs. When she said she got beat up, I said ‘Wait a second, honey, you’re dreaming. We’re at home.’ ”

Burke said he was so nervous that he kept dialing 411 instead of 911 when he was trying to reach police. While they were waiting for help to arrive to their Essex Street home, the couple wondered where their 14-year-old Jack Russell terrier was.

They went back to the downstairs bedroom to look for the dog, and to their surprise, it was locked, Burke said.

“Simultaneously with me trying to figure out whether I should go get a kitchen knife, the cops showed up,” he said. “I gave them permission, by all means — kick the door in.”

Police said the suspect struggled briefly with officers trying to arrest him. McGee, of North Farragut Road, was arraigned Monday and expected to make his bail of $30,000 cash or $60,000 bond. His parents, who attended the arraignment, could not be reached Monday.

Senior Chief Eric Best, the officer in charge of the Coast Guard Montauk station, said his agency is cooperating with the investigation but declined to comment further.

Margaret Burke was taken to Southampton Hospital and released Sunday morning.

After McGee’s arrest, Jay Burke said that he and police walked around the property to figure out how the suspect got in. They found a wire fence around his garden ripped out and his tomato plant trampled.

Then they realized the suspect had entered through the sliding glass door on their deck, Burke said. The couple had left it unlocked, but police found it locked, he said.

Burke said detectives told him the attacker doesn’t remember what happened and that those who know McGee insist his actions were out of character.

Anderson cited the continuing investigation as he declined to release other details, but said Margaret Burke was beaten for an “extended period.”

Detectives ask anyone with information about the attack to call East Hampton Town Police at 631-537-7575.

Jay Burke said his wife did not want to discuss the attack, which left her with cuts and bruises. The dog was unharmed.

The couple spent Monday morning talking to a priest and were comforted, Burke said, but they want to know what happened to the suspect before he was found in their home.

“It just needs a lot further investigation as to what happened . . . prior to this situation,” Burke said. “We look for any excuse for forgiveness because we’re Christians.”

His wife is recovering, Burke said, but he can’t accept the fact that he didn’t hear her screams.

“She suffered the trauma,” he said, “and I suffered the guilt of not waking up.”

With Nicholas Spangler