Springs Man Indicted
A Springs man arraigned last Thursday in East Hampton Town Justice Court on two felony charges, including sexual abuse in the first degree, was indicted Tuesday by a grand jury in Riverside. Valon Shoshi, 31, was unable to make the $75,000 bail set by East Hampton Town Justice Lisa R. Rana last Thursday and remained in county jail as of yesterday morning. The indictment will be unsealed and the charges made public in county court within the next week.
Mr. Shoshi turned himself in to East Hampton Village police on the afternoon before he was arraigned. In addition to the charge of sexual abuse, a second felony charge alleges that he violated an order of protection for the alleged victim, who described him to police as her boyfriend. Police are withholding her name because of the nature of the charges. He was also charged with assault and forcible touching as misdemeanors.
Police received a 911 call from the Gingerbread Lane house where the victim and Mr. Shoshi live a little after 2 a.m. on June 14. When police arrived, they called for an ambulance. The woman was bleeding from her mouth and complained of vaginal bruising. She was taken to Southampton Hospital, where stitches were needed to close the wound in her mouth.
The woman was interviewed by police and detectives at the hospital and then at Cedar Street headquarters later that morning. She told police Mr. Shoshi had been upset because she was not going to be able to attend an event with him because she had to work. Police said she told them that he became jealous, suspecting that she was seeing another man and continued to bring the matter up as day turned to night.
After midnight, with her two children asleep, she went to bed. She reported that Mr. Shoshi followed her to bed, putting his hand on her face, yelling that he was going to slit her neck and calling her vulgar names.
After he let go, she ran into the bathroom, locked the door, and dialed 911 on her cellphone, she said. When she left the bathroom, Mr. Shoshi was gone.
After a series of interviews with her Wednesday morning, detectives contacted Mr. Shoshi, who agreed to turn himself in. He was arrested a little after 4 p.m. Mr. Shoshi’s attorney in the case, Eileen Powers, was not available for his arraignment last Thursday morning, so Luis Pagan stepped in.
Rudy Migliore Jr., the prosecuting attorney, described the alleged incident in detail. Mr. Shoshi smiled through most of the process, seeming to laugh softly once or twice. Mr. Migliore pointed out that Mr. Shoshi is in the middle of a five-year probation sentence stemming from a 2014 incident, and also has an open assault charge in East Hampton, from 2015, in which it is alleged that he beat a New York City man unconscious outside Pizza Village in Montauk. He asked that bail be set at $75,000. Mr. Pagan argued to no avail that Mr. Shoshi was not a flight risk, and that the alleged victim had previously made similar allegations, then failed to cooperate with the prosecution.
Justice Rana also presided over Mr. Shoshi’s 2014 arraignment, which followed an arrest on multiple charges, including that he had fired a shotgun three times in his family’s Gardiner Avenue house. A manhunt ensued, and Mr. Shoshi was arrested after officers surrounded his car outside the One Stop Market in East Hampton. He ultimately pleaded guilty to a felony charge of reckless endangerment, along with two misdemeanors, leading to the five-year probation.
At the time of that incident, he said he was distraught over the breakup of his marriage to a woman in his native Kosovo. Prior to returning to Kosovo in 2012, Mr. Shoshi had been an assistant chief of the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association and a volunteer with the Springs Fire Department for six years.
As he was led from the courthouse in handcuffs last Thursday, Mr. Shoshi said, “It’s all a frame-up.”