Concierge Drops Dime on Ludwick
Sean P. Ludwick, who was charged with vehicular homicide in the August death of a Noyac man, was sent to the county jail on Tuesday with no possibility of bail. The United States Marshals Service and Southampton Town police took Mr. Ludwick into custody last week on suspicion of planning to flee the country.
“I don’t think there is any amount of bail in this case, or bail package that I could set, that would ensure his return to court,” said New York State Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho, whose courtroom was filled to capacity by onlookers and members of the metropolitan media. Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota himself was at the prosecution table, appearing very involved in the proceedings.
Mr. Ludwick’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, had suggested that the developer was the victim of an angry hotel concierge and an overzealous F.B.I. agent. “I guess the lesson of all this is, you never pick a fight with your concierge,” he said. The small hotel in Puerto Rico where Mr. Ludwick was staying apparently did not come up to his standards, and he informed its concierge “that he had built hotels, boutique hotels, and that some parts of this hotel were not maintained properly,” Mr. Brafman said.
The irate concierge Googled Mr. Ludwick, learned of the charges against him, and called Justice Camacho’s chambers. The call went into voicemail, and was later retrieved by the justice’s secretary. Both the secretary and the judge had trouble understanding the message, which, said Justice Camacho, was in “broken English.” At first they thought the caller was saying Mr. Ludwick was taking “singing lessons,” before realizing it was “sailing lessons.”
The concierge had arranged the lessons at Mr. Ludwick’s request. Here the developer ran into some very bad luck; the instructor turned out to be an off-duty F.B.I. agent, who, said Mr. Brafman, called “a detective from the Hamptons police department whom he knows personally, and tells him, you know, your boy Ludwick is down here in Puerto Rico, where he is talking about sailing lessons.”
Both Mr. Brafman and John Scott Prudenti, the prosecutor, agreed that the agent then became an active part of the investigation. Mr. Ludwick, it was said, asked him about the possibility of purchasing a boat in the $500,000 range.
Mr. Brafman explained this as the developer’s attempt to enjoy as much time as possible with his two sons, ages 9 and 12, before he is sentenced. He faces a minimum sentence of 102/3 years, a maximum of 32, if convicted of all charges against him, which include driving while intoxicated on the night of the fatality, dragging Paul Hansen’s body out of his Porsche and leaving it by the roadside, and fleeing the scene. “They might not see him for a number of years. Call it a wish list of things to do,” Mr. Brafman said.
It was the F.B.I. man who initiated a conversation about the possibility of paying cash for a big boat, not his client, the lawyer asserted. He went on to claim that at least some of the charges against Mr. Ludwick could be defended. “No witnesses saw the accident. There is no one to testify that Mr. Hansen was dead at the time Mr. Ludwick left. And the direction he was headed, less than a mile away, was a fire rescue ambulance station.”
Mr. Prudenti called that statement “offensive” and “incredulous.” He told the court that on Jan. 4, immediately after his arraignment, Mr. Ludwick had begun Googling topics related to fleeing the United States. He read out the Google searches he said had been obtained from the defendant’s cellphone:
“Seeking citizenship in Venezuela.
“What is expatriate life like in Venezuela?”
“Is Venezuela safe?”
“Five countries with no U.S. extradition treaty.”
“Fleeing from justice — what can happen?”
“How do fugitives escape?”
“The nicest surfing villages in Venezuela.”
All this took place between Jan. 5 and Jan. 19, when Mr. Ludwick was taken back into custody. “I could have read hundreds more,” Mr. Prudenti said.
Mr. Ludwick, he told Justice Camacho, had already wired $385,000 to a Puerto Rican destination and was scheduled to return to the island, a U.S. territory, last Thursday to consummate the purchase of the boat, a 50-foot Beneteau single-handed sailing yacht. He was taken into custody the day before he was supposed to return to the island, at his Brick Kiln Road house in Bridgehampton.
Last February, Mr. Prudenti reminded the court, Mr. Ludwick had violated an order of protection issued by a New York City court, by purchasing a pump-action shotgun and 400 rounds of ammunition. Suffolk County sheriffs have since confiscated the purchases.
“When I set a million dollars bail and took his passport, quite frankly, I never contemplated some of the possibilities raised today,” Justice Camacho said after the lawyers finished. “If I am facing 30 years in jail, the last thing on my mind would be the purchase of a $500,000 sailboat.”
He rejected Mr. Brafman’s request that his client be sentenced to house arrest in his Bridgehampton house, wearing a security ankle bracelet, while he awaits trial. Mr. Ludwick’s next court date is April 14.