Ex-Con Arrested on Felony Drug Charges
A Medford man who spent nearly four years in prison for his part in a 2008 fatal attack on an Ecuadorean immigrant in Patchogue — a hate crime that made international headlines — is back in police custody this week following an arrest in Montauk.
East Hampton Town police accused the man, Nicholas A. Hausch, 26, of driving while intoxicated. Officers stopped his car at about 2 a.m. on Saturday on South Edison Street, near Montauk Highway, after it ran a stop sign, they said. The driver reportedly failed all field sobriety tests.
During a search of the car, the officers allegedly found cocaine weighing over 500 milligrams, along with packaging material — six individual plastic bags.
In addition to the misdemeanor D.W.I. charge, Mr. Hausch faces charges of criminal possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell. He was also charged with aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, a misdemeanor. His license was suspended on April 4 for failure to answer a summons in Patchogue.
Mr. Hausch was one of seven teenagers charged in the stabbing death of Marcelo Lucero on Nov. 9, 2008, and the only defendant to cooperate with investigators, Newsday reported at his 2010 sentencing. Mr. Hausch had identified Jeffrey Conroy as the man who stabbed the 37-year-old Mr. Lucero after the group went out looking for Latinos to attack.
Mr. Hausch pleaded guilty to gang assault and conspiracy in the death of Mr. Lucero, as well as assault and attempted assault, also hate crimes, in connection with attacks on two other Latino men. He was sentenced to five years in prison in 2010, and was released in July 2014.
East Hampton Town Justice Lisa R. Rana set bail at $250,000 cash or a $500,000 bond at his arraignment on Saturday. Unable to make bail, he is being held at the county jail in Riverside.
Mr. Conroy, who was convicted of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime, is serving 25 years in prison.
In other arrests this week, a Bridgehampton resident was charged Friday with inappropriately touching a teenage girl while both were on line waiting to pay at the Hampton Market on Race Lane in East Hampton Village.
Jose Francisco Bonilla, 36, allegedly “smacked her buttocks two times at different locations,” at about 9:30 a.m., according to his arrest report. Village police said an officer caught up with him right after he left, at the intersection of Race Lane and Railroad Avenue. The girl identified Mr. Bonilla as the man who touched her, and he was arrested.
He was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, forcible touching, and second-degree harassment, all misdemeanors, and was held overnight for a morning arraignment. Bail was set at $2,500, which was posted.
East Hampton Town police charged Vakhtangi Imedashvili of Brooklyn, 23, with misdemeanor criminal possession of marijuana on Monday at about 1:25 a.m. Police said he was in front of 695 Montauk Highway in Montauk, smoking a cigarette that later tested positive for the presence of marijuana. He was released on a $150 appearance ticket.