Says He Crashed While Texting

“I was texting, and crashed,” Conrad F. Kabbaz is reported to have told East Hampton Town police after his 2002 Chevrolet hit a telephone pole on Town Lane in Amagansett around midnight Jan. 4. The 20-year-old, who lives not far from the scene, was later charged with misdemeanor driving while intoxicated.

The arresting officer said that Mr. Kabbaz had handed over a forged Ohio driver’s license, though at his arraignment the next morning his attorney, Brian J. Lester, told East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky that the young man does have a legitimate license.

Justice Tekulsky did not weigh in on that question, but did agree with Mr. Lester that his client, in view of his ties to the community, was not a flight risk, and released him without bail. However, because Mr. Kabbaz had refused to take a breath test at police headquarters, the court suspended his driving privileges, pending a hearing next week at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Late Friday night, in the hazy aftermath of a major snowstorm, Sag Harbor Village police stopped a 1997 Chevrolet driven by Refugio Mendez Saldivar, 25, as it headed south on Main Street, saying it had run a stop sign and swerved into the oncoming lane. The officer who followed the car into a parking lot reported that the driver appeared extremely intoxicated. With the winter conditions being what they were, the usual roadside sobriety tests were instead administered at Division Street headquarters.

The tests produced a .17 reading, police said, just below the .18 number that would have raised the misdemeanor charge to a more serious level. Justice Lisa R. Rana, presiding on Saturday in the Sag Harbor court, took note of the defendant’s community ties and freed him without bail.

Town police reported finding Manuel C. Quezada of East Hampton, 41, slumped over the wheel of a 1997 Chevrolet van on Malone Street in Springs on the night of Jan. 3. The car was in park but the engine was running and Mr. Quezada’s foot was on the accelerator, officers said, adding that he had failed a field sobriety test.

Back at Wainscott headquarters, the Breathalyzer test reportedly produced a reading of .15, almost double the .08 number defining intoxication. “I had four shots at my friend’s house,” the arresting officer reported him saying. “I am on my way home.”

The trip was interrupted by a night in a holding cell at police headquarters. Mr. Quezada was released the next morning without bail, but with a future date on Justice Tekulsky’s criminal calendar.