Two women were charged with felony possession of cocaine with intent to sell and drug paraphernalia on March 6, following an East Hampton Town police traffic stop on Route 114, near Toilsome Lane. 

According to police, Joseline Lizano-Mairena, 25, of Sag Harbor was behind the wheel of a 2006 BMW when she was pulled over at around 10:30 p.m. for allegedly speeding. Police said she was doing 52 miles per hour in a 30 m.p.h. zone. Katherin Molina, 27, of East Quogue was in one of the passenger seats. 

Searching the car, police said they found three plastic bags of cocaine with a weight exceeding 500 milligrams, leading to the felony charges. Police said they also found the kind of packaging materials used by drug dealers and a scale in the car. In addition, police said they found a plastic bag in the car with over 48 grams of marijuana, leading to separate misdemeanor charges.

Ms. Lizano-Mairena allegedly tried to take responsibility for the drugs that were found, telling police they belonged to her. But Ms. Molina then said, according to police, “No. It’s both of ours. I’m not going to let her just take the fall for it. It’s ours.”

They were arraigned in East Hampton Town Justice Court the following afternoon. Although neither has a prior criminal record, Rob Archer of the Suffolk district attorney’s office asked that bail be set for each at $10,000. Attorneys representing the women at the arraignment, Matthew D’Amato of the Legal Aid Society, who stood by Ms. Molina, and Carl Irace, who was appointed by the court to represent Ms. Lizano-Mairena, asked for a lesser amount. Justice Steven Tekulsky said  $5,000 would be enough to ensure that they returned to court.

Mr. Irace also raised a question about the charges, saying, “There are some search issues here. It is unclear how the police intruded themselves into the car.” 

Ms. Molina was bailed out after the arraignment by a family member. Ms. Lizano-Mairena’s family could not immediately post bail, and she was taken to county jail in Riverside. Bail was posted that evening, however, and she was released.

A 21-year-old man is facing possible deportation, as well as significant jail time, after being arrested by Sag Harbor Village police Tuesday. Norbin Hernandez-Zuniga of Brentwood, a Honduran national, was arrested at a construction site on Taft Place. According to police, the contractor on the job contacted the Sag Harbor Department after viewing  surveillance footage from Monday.

Mr. Hernandez-Zuniga is seen in the fo along with another man, according to Chief Austin J. McGuire, entering the house, which is nearing completion, through a rear door at about 11 p.m., long after other workers had left. The video shows him walking through the house. At one point, apparently not realizing what it was, he picks up the video camera and looks into the lens. The two men then are seen picking up a 75-inch flat-screen Sony TV, still in its box, and taking it away. The television was valued at $1,975.

The first officer to view the video was Nick Samot, whose work the chief complimented. Officer Samot showed the video to the owner of the company Mr. Hernandez-Zuniga was working for and he immediately identified Mr. Hernandez-Zuniga, according to police.

Taken to headquarters, he allegedly gave a statement admitting the theft and named the other man, Angelo Leon. 

Mr. Hernandez-Zuniga initially told police his full name was Normin Zuniga Fernandez, rather than Norbin Hernandez-Zuniga. However, when his fingerprints and other identifying information were run through the F.B.I. database, his actual full name was revealed, according to police. He was charged with two felonies, burglary and grand larceny, as well as two misdemeanors, false personation, and criminal trespassing. 

Janine Rayano, the village’s associate justice, set bail at $10,000 during his arraignment yesterday. Two men in the courtroom during the arraignment apparently knew Mr. Hernandez-Zuniga and expressed surprise at the allegations. 

Besides revealing his identity, the F.B.I. database triggered a request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain Mr. Hernandez-Zuniga for 48 hours after he otherwise would be released so that he could be taken into custody as part of a deportation process. The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department honors ICE requests, so Mr. Hernandez-Zuniga would not be released even if bail were posted.

As Springs School District residents prepare to vote on Tuesday on $16.9 million in bonds for a major expansion plan, the outcome remains anyone's guess, and voters not already familiar with the proposal may find themselves confused as to what it actually entails.

The cost of the project is not to exceed $22.96 million. The district has the approximately $6 million balance beyond what it would get by selling the bonds in its capital reserve fund. Opposition to the proposal has been vigorous.

The proposal calls for a 24,000-square-foot addition and the renovation of 17,000 square feet of existing interior areas. There would be seven new classrooms, including a technology and science lab, a gym that is regulation-size for middle schools, locker rooms, and junior high regulation-size soccer and baseball fields.

The art and music rooms would be renovated to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act, and 17 small instructional spaces would also get renovations.

Also in the proposal are upgrades to the school's aging infrastructure, including new roofing and windows, as well as a new low-nitrogen septic system and parking and traffic improvements.

The district now has some classes in outbuildings on the school campus. If the bond is approved, the plan is to have all of the classrooms in the main school building. The school board and administration hope that construction would begin in July 2019 and be completed by 2021.

Some residents urged the school board in 2016 to consider using the now-empty Child Development Center of the Hamptons charter school building in East Hampton to alleviate overcrowding at the Springs School. In the leadup to Tuesday's vote, opponents of the project have again questioned why the district did not pursue that option.

After looking into the matter in 2016, the school district's attorneys determined that state education law would prohibit Springs from leasing or purchasing space outside district boundaries for its own educational programs, unless that space were leased from another school district. It is able to send its prekindergartners to the former Most Holy Trinity School in East Hampton Village because Scope Educational Services runs the program and leases the space.

Should the bond pass, district homeowners with a property valued at $600,000 would have approximately $163 added to their tax bills, or $14 a month, according the school's business administrator, Michael Henery. Properties valued at $800,000 would face an increase of $217, or $18 a month, and those valued around $1 million would pay an additional $272, or $23 a month.

Voting takes place from 1 to 9 p.m. in the school library.

Scores of people showed up to testify at a public hearing on offshore drilling at Brookhaven Town Hall in Farmingville on Friday, despite the weather, which was particularly harsh in the area.

The event, prompted by a proposal to promote oil and gas drilling on 98 percent of the outer continental shelf off the coast of the United States, was hosted by Representative Lee Zeldin to give state and local officials, environmentalists, and residents a chance to share their concerns with Department of Interior representatives.

Mr. Zeldin said that having worked with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, while the secretary was in Congress, he thought Mr. Zinke would be willing to reconsider Long Island’s inclusion in the plan after hearing from Long Islanders. He stressed that "there is no evidence of these resources even being located off of Long Island. That alone is reason enough to take Long Island off the table.”

Speaking for the Citizen’s Campaign for the Environment, Adrienne Esposito said the residents of Long Island do not live here for the traffic, but for the water. “We consider the water our backyard, our front yard, but we would never consider it our junkyard.” Thanking Kate MacGregor, the deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals at the Department of Interior, the first of two representatives who showed up for the hearing, she nonetheless asked, “Who are you to threaten it?”

Officials such as Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and County Legislator Bridget Fleming joined their state and county colleagues in urging the department to eliminate the waters off Long Island from the proposed program and to endorse renewable energy efforts instead for the state and region. This is a bipartisan issue, Mr. Thiele said, echoing others. “Our environment is our economy."

According to material shared by Ms. Fleming in a letter addressed to Mr. Zinke, Long Island generates tourism income in excess of $5.6 billion, supporting more than 100,000 employees. “According to a 2016 study by Tourism Economics, over $700 million in state and local taxes is generated annually by Long Island tourism and the average Long Island household would have an annual tax bill increase of $745 without that revenue,” Ms. Fleming said.

Assemblywoman Christine Pellegrino, who represents an UpIsland district, questioned the lack of notice for the meeting, which was announced only on Wednesday, as did others, including Ms. Fleming. “We’re left wondering if the federal government actually wants to hear what we have to say,” Ms. Pellegrino said. 

Refusing to yield after her time had expired and the moderator began striking his gavel, Ms. Pellegrino asserted that “Long Island will not stand idly by while others ruin our coastline.”

After two hours of public comment, Ms. MacGregor addressed the crowd before leaving the hearing to John Tanner, another department representative, thanking them for their boldness in their comments. Responding to the calls for coastal wind energy development made during the hearing, she said that was a shared goal of the department and something it was working on while taking into consideration the concerns with that kind of development.

The current public comment period will close on Friday, March 9. Comments can be submitted to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management at boem.gov. Ms. MacGregor said the review process is long and will “involve a multitude of comment periods with potentially more meetings when we come to the next step in the program process.” An article with more information will appear in the March 8 issue of The Star.

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An East Hampton man is facing significant time in state prison after a dawn raid by combined law enforcement agencies on Tuesday resulted in his arrest and the arrest of his brother. 

Frank A. Hanna and Franaldo A. Hanna were charged with felony possession of over a pound of marijuana. In addition, Frank Hanna, 35, faces the more serious charge of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, a C felony, a loaded .45-caliber handgun.

The raid was conducted in part by what was described as a special weapons and tactics emergency services unit of specially trained officers from the East Hampton Town, East Hampton Village, and Sag Harbor Village Police Departments. Also taking part were detectives with the district attorney’s East End Drug Task Force, East Hampton Town detectives, and K-9 units from the Suffolk County Sheriff Department.

 Detective Sgt. Daniel Toia of the East Hampton Town Police Department said on Wednesday that the operation went smoothly and that no one was injured. 

According to Rob Archer, an assistant district attorney, the weapons possession charge is considered a violent crime, with convictions resulting in a minimum of 3 to 13 years in prison. But Mr. Archer said Frank Hanna also had been convicted of a violent felony in 2013. Under New York State law, a second violent felony at the C level calls for 8 to 15 years in prison.

The raid occurred at 154 Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton, the same house where Frederic Stephens Jr., an acquaintance, was accidentally shot in May 2013 with a .44-caliber gun, leading to Frank Hanna’s earlier conviction on a charge of assault for recklessly causing physical injury.

Susan Menu, an attorney representing the brothers, said the handgun was not loaded. However, the ammunition was at ready access, which according to the police, is the same as being loaded. 

In addition to the felony charges, Frank Hanna is facing three counts of possession of a controlled substance as a misdemeanor, two misdemeanor charges of criminal use of drug paraphernalia, and a misdemeanor charge of criminal possession of a weapon. Franaldo Hanna was charged with one misdemeanor count of possession of a controlled substance. East Hampton Town police said that during the raid they found, in addition to the marijuana and the hand gun, oxycodone, cocaine, packaging materials for drugs, cash, and several long guns.

When it came time during their arraignment yesterday in East Hampton Town Justice Court, Ms. Menu told Justice Lisa R. Rana that the defendants’ families, as well as members of the Calvary Baptist Church, were in the courtroom. She huddled with Justice Rana and Mr. Archer at the bench as bail was being considered for Franaldo A. Hanna. Mr. Archer had asked for $10,000; Justice Rana decided that $3,000 was appropriate. Ms. Menu said the family would post it.

Frank A. Hanna’s bail was another story. Mr. Archer asked for $50,000. Ms. Menu asked bail to be $10,000, saying, “He has a wife and child.” Justice Rana sided with Mr. Archer, and Ms. Menu told her that the family would not be able to come up with that amount. 

and Mr. Archer at the bench as bail was being considered for Franaldo A. Hanna. Mr. Archer had asked for $10,000; Justice Rana decided that $3,000 was appropriate. Ms. Menu said the family would post it.

Frank A. Hanna’s bail was another story. Mr. Archer asked for $50,000. Ms. Menu asked bail to be $10,000, saying, “He has a wife and child.” Justice Rana sided with Mr. Archer, and Ms. Menu told her that the family would not be able to come up with that amount.

Update, March 1, 3:05 p.m.: A man wanted in East Hampton since 1999 for drunken driving and manslaughter after a fiery crash that killed his passenger was picked up by Suffolk County detectives on Wednesday in Harris, Tex.

Wilson Pantosin was arraigned in New York State Supreme Court in Central Islip on Thursday, where Justice Fernando Camacho ordered him held without bail.

On the rainy night of Jan. 28, 1999, Mr. Pantosin, then 25, lost control of his car on Hog Creek Road in Springs, crossed into the oncoming lane of traffic, bounced off a utility pole, and crashed into a tree and overturned, according to a report in The East Hampton Star at the time. The vehicle burst into flames.

Mr. Pantosin, who was not wearing a seatbelt, according to the initial charges on file at East Hampton Town Justice Court, managed to get out of the burning vehicle. He told first responders that he was alone in the vehicle. He had scalp lacerations and was taken to the hospital, where blood was drawn to determine the level of alcohol in his system.

After putting out the fire, first responders discovered the body of Wilson Illaisaca, also of East Hampton and an Ecuadorean national like Mr. Pantosin. Mr. Pantosin was initially arraigned on Jan. 29, 1999, on charges of unlicensed and drunken driving, along with two traffic infractions. He was unable to meet the $10,000 bail, but six days later his bail was reduced to $1,000. He surrendered his Ecuadorean passport, posted bail, and was scheduled to return to court on March 4, 1999. He never showed up, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

In March 2003 a grand jury indicted him on charges of manslaughter, two counts of vehicular manslaughter, and two misdemeanor charges of driving while intoxicated.

Mr. Pantosin was arrested at home in Harris County, Tex, where he had been living. At a press conference on Thursday, Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini would not comment on how Mr. Pantosin came to the attention of authorities there. His attorney, Christopher Goie, said his client maintains his innocence. 

Original, March 1, 12:35 p.m.: A fugitive from East Hampton since 1999, wanted for drunken driving and manslaughter after a fiery crash that killed his passenger, was picked up by Suffolk County detectives on Wednesday in Harris, Tex.

He was scheduled to be arraigned in Central Islip on Thursday.

On the rainy night of Jan. 28, 1999, Wilson Pantosin, then 25, lost control of his car on Hog Creek Road in Springs, crossed into the oncoming lane of traffic, bounced off a utility pole, and crashed into a tree and overturned, according to a report in The East Hampton Star at the time. The vehicle burst into flames.

Mr. Pantosin, who was not wearing a seatbelt, according to the initial charges on file at East Hampton Town Justice Court, managed to get out of the burning vehicle. He told first responders that he was alone in the vehicle. He had scalp lacerations and was taken to the hospital, where blood was drawn to determine the level of alcohol in his system.

After putting out the fire, first responders discovered the body of Wilson Illaisaca, also of East Hampton and an Ecuadorean national like Mr. Pantosin. Mr. Pantosin was initially arraigned on Jan. 29, 1999, on charges of unlicensed and drunken driving, along with two traffic infractions. He was unable to meet the $10,000 bail, but six days later his bail was reduced to $1,000. He surrendered his Ecuadorean passport, posted bail, and was scheduled to return to court on March 4, 1999. He never showed up, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

In March 2003 a grand jury indicted him on charges of manslaughter, two counts of vehicular manslaughter, and two misdemeanor charges of driving while intoxicated.

It was not immediately clear this week how he came to the attention of authorities in Harris County, Tex. New York State Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho was to preside at his arraignment in Central Islip on Thursday.

East Hampton Town police, teaming with the District Attorney's East End Drug Task Force, raided an East Hampton house on Tuesday morning and arrested two brothers on drug possession charges, as well as a weapons charge.

Frank A. Hanna and Franaldo Hanna were taken into custody following the raid.

According to police, "detectives seized quantities of cocaine, oxycodone, marijuana, drug scales, packaging material, cash, a .45 caliber handgun, and several long guns."

Frank Hanna was charged with felony possession of marijuana, meaning he allegedly had more than a pound, criminal possession of a weapon as a felony, as well as several misdemeanor drug possession charges, and a misdemeanor weapons possession charge.

Franaldo Hana was charged with the same felony marijuana charge as his brother was, as well as a misdemeanor drug possession charge.

They both are to be arraigned in East Hampton Town Justice Court on Wednesday. 

Frank Hanna had been arrested in  2012 after firing a shotgun in his house at 154 Springs Fireplace Road, wounding a friend, Frederick Stephens Jr. A press release sent out by police on Tuesday afternoon did not specify the address of the raid, nor the ages of the brothers.

A Springs man is facing possible deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after being arrested by East Hampton Town police for the second time in less than a year on charges stemming from alleged drunken driving. 

Andy Michael Sanchez-Jaramillo, 34, was behind the wheel of a 2015 Hyundai headed north on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton on Saturday night when he began swerving into the oncoming lane of traffic, then swinging back across the road and onto the shoulder, police said. A patrol car began following the Hyundai, which allegedly continued to swerve, until it pulled into a driveway. 

Mr. Sanchez-Jaramillo got out of the car and allegedly tried to outrun the officer, but was soon apprehended. 

He had been arrested in June of 2017 on a driving while intoxicated charge, after being in a motor vehicle accident, according to the police. The misdemeanor charge at that time was at the aggravated level, due to a breath test that produced a reading in excess of .18 of 1 percent alcohol in the blood, police said.

That 2017 case is still being adjudicated.

At headquarters after Saturday night’s arrest, Mr. Sanchez-Jaramillo refused to take a breath test, according to the police. Because the prior charge is still open, the new D.W.I. count remains a misdemeanor. However, because his license was suspended last June following the arrest, and has yet to be restored, Mr. Sanchez-Jaramillo is now facing a felony charge of unlicensed driving. 

He was arraigned Sunday morning in East Hampton Town Justice Court in front of Justice Lisa R. Rana. He had stood before her last Thursday, as part of the adjudication process for last year’s arrest. “So not nice to see you again. You were here, what, Thursday?” she asked. She read through the new charges, which included numerous moving violations and a harassment charge for allegedly briefly struggling with the arresting officer. “There is an ICE detainer,” she concluded. 

The Suffolk County sheriff’s office holds defendants for up to 48 hours after they are supposed to be released if the county receives a detainer request from ICE officers, to allow them time to pick up the defendant on immigration charges. The legality of this practice is being challenged in the New York State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division by the New York Civil Liberties Union. 

Justice Rana set bail at $10,000. Mr. Sanchez-Jaramillo said he would not be able to post that amount; even if he did, the ICE detainer would take effect. Because he is charged with a felony, the district attorney has, under the law covering such charges, until the end of the business day on Friday to obtain an indictment on the charge or release Mr. Sanchez-Jaramillo. Such a release, however, would be technical in nature. Mr. Sanchez-Jaramillo would be moved by county sheriff’s officers from the general prisoner population at the jail in Riverside to one of the 150 beds ICE rents from the county in the same facility. At that point, the 48-hour clock would start ticking for the federal agency to take action.

In other news, Sag Harbor Village police arrested Christopher A. Thomas II early Sunday morning. He had been pulled over after crossing the Sag Harbor-North Haven Bridge, headed north. Police said the 22-year-old Sag Harbor resident was driving at night without his headlights on, and had run the stop sign at the intersection of Main Street and Bay Street. He took the breath test at headquarters, which resulted in a .13 reading, over the .08 mark that defines intoxication, according to the police. He was released later that morning after being arraigned without bail.

The East Hampton Village Board, at its meeting on Friday, commended 12 police officers and first responders who helped save the life of an elderly man who had a heart attack in the Reutershan parking lot on Jan. 1. “This was a team effort,” Richard Lawler, the trustee who made the presentations, said. Those commended were the Police Department officers James Patterson, Theodore Pharaoh, Jack Bartelme, Wayne Gauger, Brendan Wirth, and Christian Denton, as well as Sgt. Steven Sheades. Others commended were Randy Hoffman, an emergency critical care technician, Corin Oley a paramedic, and Lisa Charde, Sheila Dunlop, and Kerry Griffiths, ambulance volunteers. 

Village Police Chief Michael Tracey credited the successful response in part to the medical training his force receives. “You don’t get that everywhere in this country and you don’t get that everywhere in the State of New York, but the men and women of our Police Department are very well trained,” he said.

A Springs man whose license was revoked after a fatal 2012 accident on Route 114 was charged on Tuesday with driving under the influence of drugs, unlicensed driving, and possession of a controlled substance, all as misdemeanors, after allegedly crashing a 2008 Ford pickup truck into a utility pole off Three Mile Harbor-Hog Creek Road in Springs.

It was the second time Bryan K. Midgett Jr., 26, had been arrested within eight hours, the first being Monday night on a misdemeanor unlicensed-driving charge. He was released from police headquarters after the first arrest with an appearance ticket. 

The first arrest came a little after 10 p.m. on Monday, when, while driving a 2008 BMW, Mr. Midgett crossed over into the lane of oncoming traffic, according to the police, leading to a traffic stop.

Then, a little after 5 a.m. on Tuesday, now behind the wheel of the Ford pickup, Mr. Midgett failed to negotiate a turn, leaving the road and crashing into the utility pole south of Kingston Avenue, the police said. The first officer on the scene reported that Mr. Midgett’s speech was slurred, his reaction time was slow, and he was disoriented. Mr. Midgett explained the bluish color in his nostrils, the police allege, by saying, “I sniffed Valium.”

After being arrested on the charge of driving with ability impaired by drugs, as well as the unlicensed-driving count, he was taken to headquarters. There, police said they found in his pocket five tablets of alprazolam, a prescription drug. 

He was taken in to be arraigned in East Hampton Town Justice Court in front of Justice Lisa R. Rana a little after 10:30 on Tuesday morning. At one point, while seated in the courtroom on the defendant’s bench, waiting his turn, he fell over onto his side, hard, then righted himself. When he was told to stand before the judge, he did so with difficulty. 

Mr. Midgett was represented by Cynthia Darrell from the Legal Aid Society. Justice Rana said that he was already on her Wednesday calendar, in two separate cases, one a charge of criminal contempt and the second another unlicensed-driving charge. Ms. Darrell argued for a low bail amount. When Justice Rana agreed to set bail at $500, Ms. Darrell said it was the amount Mr. Midgett had told her he could post. However, Mr. Midgett began to verbally object to the amount, until told not to speak. 

“You best not get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle,” Justice Rana warned. “If you are driving, you are going to jail.” 

As Justice Rana began to do paperwork on the two new sets of charges, Mr. Midgett remarked that he would be pleased to “at least” have “a real lawyer” the following day. Ms. Darrell, who has been defending clients charged with crimes for 25 years, and is the head of the Legal Aid Society’s East End division, remained silent. Not so Justice Rana, who said, “You are showing great disrespect for the court.” She ordered an officer to take Mr. Midgett back to the holding cell just outside the courtroom while she finished the paperwork.

The $500 bail was posted later that day at police headquarters. 

On July 29, 2012, Mr. Midgett was the driver of a vehicle that crashed, head-on, into an oncoming car on Route 114, killing one of the occupants of that vehicle, Douglas Schneiderman, a Virginian vacationing on the East End with his family. Elisabeth Schneiderman, Mr. Schneiderman’s wife, and one of his two daughters were severely injured, as well. 

Mr. Midgett was charged at the time with driving under the influence of drugs, after police said they found an empty container of hydrocodone in the truck he was driving. That charge was eventually dropped.

However, the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles took up the matter, and after holding a hearing, revoked Mr. Midgett’s driving privileges. The judge hearing that case, Todd A. Schall, found that at the time of the accident, Mr. Midgett had been “engaging in reckless driving in that he unreasonably endangered himself and others by operating a motor vehicle in an impaired condition under the influence of marijuana and hydrocodone.”

A Sag Harbor man, Robert B. Slowey, 61, was arrested a little before noon on Feb. 7 on a charge of drunken driving by East Hampton Town police, before being taken to the hospital. According to the police, Mr. Slowey was behind the wheel of a 1986 Nissan pickup truck on Town Lane just west of its intersection with Old Stone Highway, when he lost control of the vehicle, “causing him to drive off the roadway, down an embankment, and strike a tree.” The truck then rolled over onto its side. After being taken to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, accompanied by a police officer, he refused to have blood drawn to determine the level of alcohol in his system. He was issued an appearance ticket, and will be arraigned in East Hampton Town Justice Court at a future date, at which time his license will likely be suspended for the next year, due to his refusal to take the chemical test.

Suzanne Porta, 45, of Westbury and Wainscott is facing a felony cocaine-possession charge, as well as a misdemeanor charge of aggravated drunken driving, after being arrested early Saturday morning by East Hampton Town police. They said the 2010 Toyota she was driving south on Cedar Street near Hand’s Creek Road in East Hampton was moving at 45 miles per hour in a 30 m.p.h. zone. Police said she was initially charged with driving while intoxicated, and took the breath test at police headquarters, with a recorded reading of .21 of 1 percent, well over the level of .18 that automatically raises a misdemeanor to the aggravated level.

As police searched her purse, they said, they found a plastic bag with more than 500 milligrams of cocaine in it, triggering the felony charge. Bail was set at $750, which Ms. Porta posted.

Sara J. Byrnes, 62, of East Hampton, was arrested by town police Friday night. Police said the 1995 Ford she was driving west on Jackson Street swerved into the oncoming lane of traffic as she made a turn. Her breath-test reading was slightly over the .08 level that defines intoxication in New York. Her legal situation is somewhat complicated due to the fact that she was arrested almost exactly a year ago by East Hampton Town police on the same charge. Last year, she was allowed to plea bargain down to a lesser charge of driving with ability impaired by alcohol, a simple violation. (That charge is triggered by a breath test reading of between .05 and .07.) She was released this week without bail.