Centerport man charged with sending threatening texts to Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder

A Centerport man was arrested Sunday night after allegedly sending a series of threatening text messages to the cellphone of Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder, court documents show. 

Eamon J. Burke, 34, was charged with aggravated harassment in the second degree for sending messages threatening to fight the county’s top police official, according to a criminal complaint.

He pleaded not guilty and was released without bail, according to court records.

Ryder, in an interview Tuesday, said he was reading local news reports last Thursday when he received a series of threatening texts from an unfamiliar phone number.

“I was reading Newsday, going through the news reports in the morning, and all of a sudden my phone pinged and I looked over, and it came in like a couple of different texts, and I'm like, what?" Ryder said. "And then it got worse as the text messages went on, so I said, 'You know what, I have a family that I have to protect.' So obviously I called my squad, they took a report and he was arrested the other day.”

Ryder said Burke used his own phone to send the texts — not a burner phone — so Nassau detectives were able to quickly identify him as a suspect.

Ryder said he doesn't know Burke and didn't recognize him from a photo detectives showed him. As for how Burke got his hands on the cellphone number of the Nassau police commissioner, Ryder said he's had the same number for several years and has given it out liberally to various community members.

In the text messages, Burke didn't address him by his name or his commissioner title, but Ryder said he believes Burke "knows I'm a cop." Ryder said Burke also referenced another member of law enforcement, a state police investigator who retired about 20 years ago, in the texts.

"I don't know why he picked me, but like I said, I have to protect my family so that's why I filed the report," the commissioner said.

In one text cited by prosecutors, Burke allegedly told Ryder: "I'll break that jaw faster than the interview you did outside my old house."

"I don't even know where Centerport is," Ryder said. "I'm not a Suffolk County guy."

Ryder said a patrol car was assigned to sit outside his home until Burke was arrested.

"I've had protests in front of my house; I've had people come knock on my door, confront my wife and my family; I've heard numerous threats over the years, gang members and so forth," said Ryder. "Any time you gotta come out of your house and see a cop sitting in front of your house, my neighbors get nervous, my wife gets nervous, my kids get nervous. It's not fair to them."

In an affidavit signed by the police commissioner, Ryder noted  he received a group of text messages from Burke telling him to “stop being a [expletive].”

The notes also instructed Ryder to “put your vest on old man, come face me wearing jeans.”

Burke’s lawyer, John Carman, said his client meant no harm to Ryder.

“The messages at issue were sent in a moment of great frustration but without any intention to actually confront the commissioner,” the attorney said. “Mr. Burke will communicate an apology for his impetuous texting in an appropriate manner in the near future.”

At Burke’s arraignment, Nassau District Judge Ryan Cronin ordered him to stay away from Ryder and released him without bail.

Burke is due back in court June 24.