Guilty Pleas to Felonies

Two local men charged with felonies pleaded guilty recently in county court in Riverside.

Kody J. Knudsen of Springs, 26, was arrested on July 21 after crashing a 2009 Mercedes-Benz into a utility pole on the Napeague stretch. He was also charged at the time with felony weapons possession, but the grand jury that indicted him dropped that charge.

On Tuesday, he admitted to driving while intoxicated and under the influence of drugs. He was remanded to the county jail in Riverside and is scheduled to be sentenced in the courtroom of State Supreme Court Justice Stephen L. Braslow on Dec. 17.

Frederick Stephens Jr. of East Hampton was charged on July 19 with felony drug possession and resisting arrest, and at about the same time, after a combined investigation by East Hampton Town police and the Suffolk County East End Drug Task Force, with possessing and selling cocaine. He pleaded guilty as charged on Sept. 24, in the courtroom of State Supreme Court Justice William Condon.

According to his lawyer, Stephen Grossman, Mr. Stephens was given the chance to plead to a lesser charge but turned it down, because it would have included jail time past what he had already served. His guilty plea, said Mr. Grossman, means that he will not have to do the additional time when he is sentenced on Nov. 23, with the understanding that if there are any further encounters with the law, prison time is likely.

Mr. Grossman said he believed Mr. Stephens had turned a corner in his life, following the recent birth of a son.