A wild Nantucket yacht party allegedly involved “pornographic” filmmaking and a long, drug-fueled weekend, according to a search warrant for the 80-foot Jess Conn luxury Nordhavn yacht that served as a backdrop for the entire fiasco.
The ordeal left 69-year-old retired Dr. Scott Anthony Burke facing a slew of gun and drug charges. He has terminal cancer and was released on $200,000 bail.
The court documents, obtained by Fox News Digital, allege that a Texas man called Nantucket police to report a woman’s possible overdose aboard the $7.5 million vessel after she passed out in the middle of a FaceTime call on Sept 5.
Scott Anthony Burke’s yacht is prepared to be moved in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on Tuesday, Sept. 12. Burke is facing gun and drug charges, relating to an incident on his yacht. (Nantucket Current)
He said to the dispatcher that the woman told him “they were doing drugs all weekend long and people on the boat had been making pornographic films,” according to the filing.
The warrant did not contain any more details about the alleged films, but it did revealed police found bags of “blue pills” in Burke’s bedroom on a bookcase near where police encountered the woman after boarding. Separately, they found cocaine, ketamine and handguns the doctor is accused of illegally carrying in Massachusetts.
Police alleged the retiree was “extremely uncooperative” before they handcuffed him and read his Miranda rights.
FLORIDA MAN BUSTED WITH GUNS, DRUGS AND ‘PROSTITUTES’ IN LUXE NANTUCKET YACHT RAID
Dr. Scott Anthony Burke lowers his head in a Massachusetts court during a Sept. 7 bail hearing on a dozen drug and gun charges. He was released on $200,000 bail. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
He allegedly waived his right to remain silent, denied any knowledge of narcotics on his boat and told police he had a license for the handguns they found.
However, according to police, they found cocaine in various parts of the ship, including 30 grams in a safe. Additionally, his Florida permit was both expired and invalid in Massachusetts, according to the warrant.
As for the victim, court documents identified her as 33-year-old crew member who denied any knowledge of narcotics aboard the vessel. She was taken to the Nantucket Cottage Hospital, according to police. One of her friends was also on the yacht and told police she had left prescription Adderall pills on board.
Scott Anthony Burke’s yacht is prepared to be moved in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on Tuesday, Sept. 12. Burke is facing gun and drug charges, relating to an incident on his yacht. (Nantucket Current)
“I’ve heard these stories about prostitution and sex trafficking, and if you look at every report by the government, they never even suggested that,” Burke’s attorney, Hank Brennan, told Fox News Digital. “These claims come out of totally thin air, fires and catfights, zero evidence of that. It’s fabricated.”
He called the suggestion that the crew member may have been involved in prostitution “demeaning” and “sexist.”
“I don’t even know her, but I don’t need to defend her,” he said. “If there was evidence of wrongdoing, you bet that the government would have put it in there, because you can read from the reports, much of the embellishments trying to create an image that really isn’t factually based.”
Dr. Scott Anthony Burke, right, poses with his family on the back of his luxury yacht, the Jess Conn. (Tony Burkenstock/Facebook)
Burke has terminal cancer, Brennan said at a bail hearing last week, but he declined to elaborate on his client’s condition. He is also a humanitarian who was one of the first international doctors to head to Haiti after a devastating earthquake in 2010, Brennan said.
“If there was something nefarious or sinister, such as prostitution or sex trafficking, it would be found in the police reports,” he told Fox News Digital.
He declined to discuss Burke’s spirits and condition.
Scott Anthony Burke at a bail hearing in Plymouth District Court. The retired Florida doctor is facing gun and drug charges, related to an incident on his yacht. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
“I’m not inclined to discuss health matters, [but] I think it was a necessary event because the government was looking to take away his liberty and hold him in jail for a pretty routine charge,” he said. “So I was compelled to share with the court some reasons why it would be totally unjust.”
In all, police allegedly seized more than 40 grams of cocaine and 14 grams of ketamine, along with multiple firearms, magazines and ammunition from the doctor’s boat, which left harbor earlier this week.
A source close to the investigation reportedly told the Nantucket Current that authorities also encountered prostitutes on board, but police have not confirmed that claim, and court records do not show any prostitution-related charges against Burke.
Police searched the 80-foot Nordhavn yacht Jess Conn and allegedly recovered a stash of cocaine in a safe, ketamine and unlicensed handguns. Its owner, Dr. Scott Burke, was arrested. (@kitnoble @nantucketcurrent)
“That’s certainly not in my press release,” Lt. Angus MacVicar, the Nantucket Police Department’s public information officer, told Fox News Digital.
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Public records show Burke obtained his medical license in Colorado in 1981. It was last renewed in 2019. He has owned at least two other large vessels over the years, 90 and 58 feet long, also named Jess Conn.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Burke also founded a medical lien service firm called Injury Finance in 2003 and as a physician specialized in spine rehab and pain. His bio said he retired from active medical practice.
Burke is due back in court next month.
