Central Islip Lawyer Arrested on Drug Charges

A lawyer from Central Islip is facing a multitude of narcotics charges, including possession with intent to sell, after being arrested early Wednesday morning by East Hampton Town police following a traffic stop in downtown Montauk.

It is the second time he has been the subject of a felony arrest this month.

According to police, after apparently leaving an establishment on Montauk's Main Street, Daniel R. Wasp, 50, forgot to turn on the headlights of the 1999 Jeep he was driving, leading to the stop. When the officer ran Mr. Wasp's license, he discovered that it had been suspended numerous times for failures to answer traffic summonses.

Mr. Wasp was handcuffed, charged with misdemeanor unlicensed driving, and placed in the back of a squad car.

Police then began a routine search. In documents prepared for the court, police said that when they opened a knapsack that was in the Jeep, they found a veritable supermarket of recreational drugs, packaging materials, and a scale. The knapsack allegedly contained over five milligrams of methamphetamine and over 500 milligrams of cocaine, enough of each to lead to two felony possession charges. Police also said they found four packets of heroin, a hypodermic needle, small plastic bags that can be used to package narcotics, and an electronic digital scale, all of which led to four misdemeanor possession charges.

The most serious of the felony charges Mr. Wasp faces is possession with intent to sell.

Police also claimed to have found a small amount of marijuana, leading to a simple violation possession charge.

Mr. Wasp was taken to headquarters and placed in a holding cell. He was arraigned late Wednesday morning in East Hampton Town Justice Court. Patrick Fedun, an assistant district attorney, asked Justice Steven Tekulsky to set bail at $35,000. Mr. Wasp told the court that he had served for more than six years in the Navy, and Matthew D'Amato of the Legal Aid Society, who was representing Mr. Wasp for his arraignment, laid out how Mr. Wasp had graduated cum laude from the St. John's University School of Law and went on to work at several prominent law firms before setting up his own office in Smithtown in 2014. Justice Tekulsky set bail at $10,000.

Not immediately able to post that amount, Mr. Wasp on Wednesday afternoon was turned over to Suffolk County sherrifs, who transported him to the county jail in Riverside, where he remained as of Thursday morning.

Mr. Wasp was previously arrested on April 5 by Suffolk County police, who charged him with grand larceny. Online court records indicate that police allege that Mr. Wasp stole more than $3,000 on or before March 9 from, according to comments made at the arraignment in East Hampton, an escrow account he was in charge of. He was arraigned on that charge in Central Islip on April 5 and released without having to post bail. He was scheduled to appear in court in Central Islip on Thursday, when the question of bail in that case could be revisited.