Cyril’s of Napeague Set for Jury Trial

The stakes in the long-running duel between the Town of East Hampton and the owners of Cyril’s Fish House on Napeague were raised considerably this week when Justice Steven Tekulsky scheduled May 3 as the day to begin jury selection in a criminal trial of the ownership group. The group faces a total of 248 charges, many of them unclassified misdemeanors, each of which is punishable by up to six months in the county jail. Almost all the charges date from 2014.

According to Michael Sendlenski, who heads the town attorney’s office, Joseph Prokop is handling the case. Neither Mr. Sendlenski nor Mr. Prokop would talk about it this week; Mr. Sendlenski explained that it was office policy not to address pending litigation.

Conrad Jordan, attorney for the defendants, did not return phone calls to his office.

There are multiple defendants named, including Clan-Fitz Inc. The New York State Liquor Authority issued Cyril’s a new license this year, running from April 1 through Halloween, under that name.

According to William Crowley, spokesman for the liquor authority, the authorization, known as a summer vessel license, would be based upon the owners having presented the authority with a certificate of occupancy when they first applied, in the 1980s. But 59 of the misdemeanor charges are for lacking a valid certificate of occupancy. If the establishment is convicted of any of them, Mr. Crowley said, the authority would review the license. “You need a certificate of occupancy to operate,” he said.

In 2014, the authority cancelled Cyril’s license, but that action was stayed when the owners sued the state.

Cyril Fitzsimons himself is not directly named in the criminal complaint, though two corporate entities, of which he may be a partner, are. Besides Clan-Fitz Inc., the defendants are Cyril’s, Debra Dioguardi Lakind, Michael Dioguardi, and Robert Dioguardi.

In 2012, in a somewhat similar case, the owners of the Surf Lodge in Montauk settled over 100 counts, many of them misdemeanors, out of court, agreeing to pay $100,000 in settlement.

The jury chosen May 3 for the East Hampton Town Justice Court trial will have six members plus two alternates, drawn from the East Hampton area. This is a separate action from the town’s civil lawsuit against the owners, which began in 2013. That case is adjourned for the time being to allow Cyril’s to satisfy the alleged violations via the site plan review process. The criminal proceedings have been in limbo for the past two years as well, for the same reason.

But the site plan review process came to a crashing halt last month, with members of the planning board expressing anger at being presented a plan essentially unchanged from years past. “This came before us before, and it was the same song,” Nancy Keeshan said at the time. “They are illegal,” Kathleen Cunningham said. “They go against the town’s code.”

It is likely that the May trial will keep the civil case, also being handled by Mr. Prokop, in abeyance until the criminal charges are adjudicated.