Accounts Differ on Felony Assault Arrest

An early-morning altercation Saturday between a Bridgehampton man and an 83-year-old Northwest Woods woman ended with her hospitalization for a fractured skull. The man is in county jail, charged with felony assault.

The man and the woman gave police starkly different narratives, but in both, Irene Foster ended up on the kitchen floor after cracking her head on the refrigerator, either pushed or punched down by Bronte E. O’Neal. Their statements are on file with the East Hampton Town Justice Court.

East Hampton Town police charged Mr. O’Neal, 50, with assault in the second degree and criminal mischief. He allegedly tossed Ms. Foster’s cellphone across the room as she was trying to dial for help, bringing on the second charge.

Detectives interviewed the woman at Southampton Hospital later Saturday morning as she was being treated for her injuries. She told them she had known Mr. O’Neal for about a year, and that he does handyman jobs for her. She had picked him up Friday morning at the East Hampton train station, she said, and he worked for her that day, doing landscaping work around the property at 29 Hands Creek Road. According to Det. Sgt. Greg Schaefer, that property was formerly a bed and breakfast; more recently, he said, Ms. Foster has been renting rooms in the cottages to tenants.

On Friday evening, she told detectives, Mr. O’Neal asked her if he could stay overnight rather than take the train back to Mastic-Shirley, where he has been staying.

Mr. O’Neal provided a different version of events when interviewed by detectives on Saturday afternoon prior to his arrest. He and Ms. Foster have known each other for about three years, he said, and he would work for her on occasion. They were friends, he told police.

The altercation began at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, when, Ms. Foster told detectives, she went into the kitchen and found $200 missing from her wallet. “I told him he had taken the money,” she said in her complaint. “I told Bronte that if he did not leave, I was calling 911. That is when he punched me as hard as he could, right in the face.” She fell backward, she said, hitting her head on the refrigerator. “I heard him take my car keys off the counter, and Bronte left.”

Detectives later put out a “be on the lookout” call to East End police departments for Ms. Foster’s missing white 2015 Hyundai Elantra.

Mr. O’Neal told the detectives that Ms. Foster had given him the $200 the night before as payment for his work, and said she had been drinking heavily. He claimed that she had consumed three bottles of Bogle Vineyards California wine during Friday afternoon and evening.

According to Mr. O’Neal, at 6:30 Saturday morning, “I started towards the door. She grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back.” Then, he said, she swung an empty bottle of wine at his head. “I ducked and she missed me,” he is quoted as saying. “I pushed her right in the face.” He admitted taking the keys to the car, which, he told detectives, he had permission to use when he was at the property. On his way to the car, he stated, he threw the phone into the bushes, then drove to Mastic-Shirley.

At 7:04 a.m., police received an emergency call reporting an injured female, “lacerations to the head,” at 29 Hands Creek Road. The call came from a tenant in one of the cottages, whom Ms. Foster had alerted. “She woke him up,” Detective Schaefer said. She was soon taken to Southampton Hospital, where detectives interviewed her, before being transferred to Stony Brook University Hospital. Detectives then called Mr. O’Neal and asked him to return to town to be interviewed.

He was at police headquarters in Wainscott that afternoon. He told detectives, as he finished his statement, “I didn’t want to hurt her.” At 4:14 p.m., when the interview ended, he was placed under arrest.

According to Detective Schaefer, who spoke about the case yesterday, Ms. Foster suffered “a fractured skull, lacerations to her head, and a broken collarbone.” Police allege that Mr. O’Neal kicked her repeatedly while she was on the floor.

When detectives finished interviewing her in Southampton, Ms. Foster told them that “I cannot sign the statement, because I am in too much pain.” Her condition was upgraded yesterday, according to George Filiano, a hospital spokesman, from serious to good.

In court on Sunday morning, Mr. O’Neal was arraigned before East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky, who set bail at $50,000. “You have a fairly extensive criminal record,” the justice told him, “though none are felony convictions.”

Justice Tekulsky explained to Mr. O’Neal what this week held for him if he were unable to make bail. If he is not indicted by tomorrow he will, under state law, have to be released. He was still in county jail in Riverside as of yesterday morning.

Detective Schaefer said the department was in touch with District Attorney Thomas Spota’s office regarding the timing of an indictment. He described the investigation as ongoing, saying that police intend to interview Ms. Foster again after she recovers.

Ms. Foster herself was arrested earlier this year in East Hampton, charged with petty theft on Feb. 24 for allegedly shoplifting at Waldbaum’s. The outcome of that case is not clear.

One of Mr. O’Neal’s previous arrests is also said to have involved an elderly woman. In May 2012, Southampton police accused him of taking a car that belonged to a recently deceased woman and selling it to an unwitting buyer. He was charged with grand larceny. That case is still open, according to the court clerk’s office.