Crashes Kept Police Busy Over the Fourth

The July Fourth weekend was marked by a number of vehicular accidents resulting in charges of drunken driving.

An East Hampton 18-year-old, whose name was withheld because of his age, was charged early Saturday morning with driving while high on drugs, resisting arrest, and possession of a hypodermic needle following a serious accident on Stephen Hand’s Path in East Hampton. It was the youth’s second such accident. The first was a rollover; in this case there were two passengers in the car.

The case file on his earlier arrest has been sealed, under state law covering those granted youthful offender status. At his arraignment, however, East Hampton Town Justice Lisa R. Rana warned the youth’s lawyer, Stephen Grossman, that if his client does not go into treatment, he will go instead to jail.

A Dodge pickup driven by Joseph J. Valente of Levittown, 55, was in a minor accident on Old Montauk Highway in Montauk around midnight Saturday. The driver’s breath test back at headquarters reportedly produced a reading of .15 of 1 percent. Mr. Valente told the court Sunday morning that he was in the construction industry, and asked Justice Rana if she would grant him a hardship license to enable him to get to work. “I sometimes will, under certain circumstances,” she said, encouraging the man to hire a lawyer as soon as possible, to handle the paperwork involved.

Luis Alfredo Parra-Gomez, 26, of Amagansett, had an accident on Main Street in that hamlet shortly after 8 a.m. on Friday. His arrest was late enough in the day that arraignments were over by the time he was processed, and he had to be held at town police headquarters for 24 hours, until Saturday. His breath test produced a reading of .12, police said. A carpenter by trade, he posted the $500 bail set by the court.

Luis A. Arias, 47, also of Amagansett, had his bail set at $10,000, far and away the highest of the week. He was stopped by police Saturday night on Main Street in the hamlet for an unspecified traffic infraction, and failed roadside sobriety tests, according to police. He told the court the next morning that he was a day laborer.

Mr. Arias has three prior convictions for driving while intoxicated, all occurring between 2000 and 2004. The last charge was a felony. His license has never been restored, so police also charged him with felony unlicensed driving, and he could face permanent revocation of his license.

The district attorney’s office asked bail to be set at $6,000, but after weighing all the factors in the case, Justice Rana raised it to $10,000. “I’ll pay that,” Mr. Arias said through an interpreter, and he did.

Also over the holiday weekend, the East Hampton Village Police Department was the lead agency in an anti-drunken driving sweep, covering the town from Wainscott to Montauk as well as Sag Harbor and Shelter Island. Officers are brought in from other jurisdictions in a sweep; this one ran from 8 p.m. Saturday to 4 a.m. Sunday morning.

The sweep netted four arrests. A Southampton Town officer charged Abby Kay Lauri of Manhasset, 22, after stopping her 2013 Volkswagen Jetta on Montauk Highway in Amagansett at about 10 p.m. Saturday for several alleged moving violations. Ms. Lauri, a college student, had a reported blood-alcohol reading of .13 at the Cedar Street headquarters of the village force. Clearly despondent in court the next morning, she was released without bail, but with an admonition to show up for all her court dates.

A 2012 Mercedes Benz driven by Richard J. Halloran III, 24, was pulled over around midnight Saturday by another task force officer. Mr. Halloran refused to take the breath test, causing Justice Rana to revoke his license, pending a hearing. The defendant told the court he was an internet professional based in Washington, D.C. Bail was set at $500, which was posted.

Michael John Angelo, 25, was stopped on Montauk Highway in Montauk around 1:30 a.m. Sunday after allegedly swerving into the oncoming lane. He told the court he manages a film studio in Bethpage. His breath test produced the highest reading of the night, .26, triggering a raised misdemeanor charge of aggravated drunken driving. “I’m very concerned about the level of that reading,” Justice Rana said to him as she set bail at $500.

Timothy Richard Fried, 33, the final defendant caught in the sweep, was driving a 2014 Mercedes Benz, clocked at 55 miles per hour on Stephen Hand’s Path, where the speed limit is 30 m.p.h., according to the task force officer who made the stop. At headquarters, according to police, his breath test resulted in a reading of .15. Mr. Fried, a transportation consultant who lives in Manhattan, posted the $500 bail set by Justice Rana.

A Montauk man, Richard A. Gibbs, 58, was pulled over on West Lake Drive there early Friday morning for swerving across lane lines. Police said his breath test produced a reading of .13. Mr. Gibbs, the owner of Rick’s Crabby Cowboy Cafe, told the court he has lived in Montauk for 25 years. He was released without bail.

Oscar Neri-Reyes, 30, of Amagansett was arrested early last Thursday morning. According to police, he initially gave a false name and date of birth to the officer who stopped his 1997 Nissan on Amagansett Main Street. Mr. Neri-Reyes’s license had previously been revoked, when, after a prior arrest, he refused to submit to a breath test, making the new unlicensed-driving charge a felony. He was also charged with D.W.I. and false personation, both at the misdemeanor level. Bail was set at $1,000, which was posted.

The lowest blood-alcohol reading of the week was also the final D.W.I. arrest in East Hampton Town. Christian Penafel, 24, an East Hampton resident, was arrested the morning of the Fourth. His reading was said to be .10. He was released without bail, but with a future

date on Justice Rana’s calendar.