‘I Hit That Car That Came Out of Nowhere’

“I was lost, so I was looking at my phone, and I hit that car that came out of nowhere,” Maryann Z. Hommel of Long Beach, 31, told East Hampton Town police after rear-ending a 2007 Mercedes-Benz on Montauk Main Street early on the morning of Sept. 13. Police said she failed a roadside sobriety test, and arrested her on a charge of driving while intoxicated. Back at headquarters, her breath test produced a reported reading of .16, twice the .08 level that triggers the D.W.I. charge.

Ms. Hommel teared up throughout her arraignment later that morning. Never having been arrested before, and with a promise to retain private counsel, she was released without bail.

Early Sunday morning Joseph A. Wenegenofsky of Southampton, 30, driving a 2015 Ford F-250 pickup, was stopped at the intersection of Main Street and Newtown Lane. When the light turned from red to green, the truck failed to move, according to police, obstructing traffic and catching an officer’s eye. When it finally did move, the officer followed, and reported that Mr. Wenegenofsky had taken off up Main Street, where the speed limit is 30 miles per hour, at 45 m.p.h., swerving in and out of the parking lane.

Charged with D.W.I., he was taken to Cedar Street police headquarters, where a breath test produced a reported reading of .15.

At his arraignment later that morning, after East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky suspended his driver’s license, he told the court that he is a charter fishing boat captain in Montauk. Justice Tekulsky, realizing he would need a hardship license to drive there from Southampton, noted that Mr. Wenegenofsky has been convicted of driving while ability impaired by alcohol within the past five years, and said it did not appear he was eligible for such a license. He released him without bail, remarking upon the presence of his parents in the courtroom.

A Brooklyn man, Lyle K. Shanahan, 29, was arrested shortly before midnight last Thursday. A town officer said his 2007 Subaru, headed toward Montauk Highway on Second House Road in Montauk, had been swerving across lane lines, and pulled it over. “I had a couple of beers, but that was hours ago,” he reportedly told the officer. His breath test allegedly produced a .16 reading.

Mr. Shanahan told Justice Tekulsky in the morning that he was a freelance photographer and might need a Legal Aid Society lawyer. According to his Instagram page, he had been shooting in Montauk at the former Richard Avedon property. Legal Aid provides attorneys for the indigent, and Justice Tekulsky gave him an application for its assistance but told him he would have to go to Riverhead to determine if he was eligible. Mr. Shanahan was released after posting $250 bail.

Randall Taylor Rivera of Cranston, R.I., 27, was stopped near Navaho Lane on Napeague early Sept. 13 after police said his 2017 Kia had been swerving across lane lines. His breath test reportedly produced a .14 reading.

His arraignment was scheduled for later that morning. However, similarities between his personal identification information and that of an individual with an open out-of-state criminal charge, apparently a felony, caused detectives to be called in to question him. Ultimately, it was determined that he was not the wanted man, but the process cost him an extra day in a holding cell.

Arraigned last Thursday, he was released after traveling companions posted $500 bail.