Assault on Cop Is Alleged
Jeriel Jose Rivera-Carrera of East Hampton, 33, was charged Tuesday with felony assault on an East Hampton Town policewoman following a brawl at police headquarters in Wainscott, where a search of his person had allegedly turned up a packet of heroin. According to police, Mr. Rivera-Carrera grabbed the packet and attempted to swallow it.
As he was putting it into his mouth, Officer Andrea Kess intervened and ordered him to give it to her. He resisted, and a struggle ensued, during which the officer injured an index finger and suffered bruises on her arms. Sgt. Barry Johnson, a burly man, stepped in, but the altercation continued and Mr. Rivera-Carrera had to be Tasered before he could be subdued.
Officer Kess was taken to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital for treatment. Mr. Rivera-Carrera, who had managed to ingest part of the packet, began vomiting, and he, too, was transported to the hospital, which released him back to police custody after treatment. He faces an additional felony charge of destroying evidence, the heroin.
The episode began at about 3 a.m. on Tuesday on Amagansett Main Street, where police had stopped the man’s 2015 Jeep for a traffic violation. The officer, Ms. Kess, reported seeing a billy club and a hypodermic needle in the Jeep, and police later found that Mr. Rivera-Carrera had been forbidden to carry weapons following a conviction for weapons possession. He was charged with a third felony related to that discovery.
He was arraigned yesterday before Justice Lisa R. Rana. “None of this is good, sir. I am directing the probation department to file a violation of probation against you,” she said. She reviewed his convictions, including the weapons charge, petty larceny, and drug possession, all since 2011. Rudy Migliore Jr., the prosecutor handling the arraignment, asked that bail be set at $100,000, at which point the defendant’s wife, who was in the courtroom, began crying.
Robert J. Coyle, Mr. Rivera-Carrera’s attorney, who has represented him in the past, asked for bail of $5,000, arguing in part that what police called a billy club was not one at all, but a Hall of Fame souvenir baseball bat “which has been turned into a club.”
“There is a lot going on here,” Justice Rana said. “I’m setting bail at $50,000, cash.”
Mr. Coyle said his client would not be able to post it. He was scheduled late yesterday to be taken to the county jail. The district attorney’s office has until late Friday to obtain an indictment against him, or he will be released under state law regulating felony arrests.
As he was being led away from the courthouse, Mr. Rivera-Carrera said the billy club in question was in fact a souvenir baseball bat. “I bought it in Cooperstown, on a trip with my family,” he said.
Another recent drug-related arrest involved a waiter at a Montauk restaurant. Sasha Sanzin, 20, was arrested early Sunday morning outside Pizza Village in Montauk on felony charges of possession of cocaine with intent to sell. Police said they found him with nine packets of cocaine.
Before he was searched, according to police, he admitted having some marijuana. When police found the cocaine, Mr. Sanzin reportedly told them, “Okay, it’s not bud. I bought it at the Point to have some fun.” The combined weight of the cocaine was over 500 milligrams, police said.
During his arraignment later Sunday, Mr. Sanzin told police he works as a server at the Crow’s Nest. Bail was set at $500, which was posted.