Drugs, Packaging, and a Scale
A lawyer from Central Islip is facing a multitude of narcotics charges, including possession with intent to sell, after being arrested early on the morning of April 11 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, Daniel R. Wasp, 50, had “insufficient taillights” on 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 failure 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 on April 11 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 St. John’s University School of Law and gone 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.
Unable to post that amount, Mr. Wasp was turned over to Suffolk County sheriffs, who transported him to the county jail in Riverside, where he spent the next five days. On Monday, he was released from custody, as required in cases where a defendant is unable to make bail on a felony charge but an indictment is not obtained within the prescribed 120 hours after arrest.
Mr. Wasp was previously arrested on April 5 by Suffolk County police, who charged him with grand larceny. Online court records and comments made at the arraignment in East Hampton indicate that police allege that Mr. Wasp stole more than $3,000 on or before March 9 from 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.