Montauk Boat Captain Charged with B.W.I.

The captain of a Montauk lobster boat was charged Saturday morning with boating while intoxicated, a misdemeanor, as well as reckless operation of a vessel.

On Friday night, in response to an anonymous call reporting a vessel leaving Montauk Harbor in a reckless manner, the Coast Guard boarded the Anna Mary, captained by Anthony D. Sosinski, 47.

“We dispatched a 47-foot motor lifeboat with a boarding team,” said Lt. Martin Betts, a public affairs officer. At 10:46 p.m., he said, the Anna Mary was located near False Point, about a mile west of Montauk Point, still in state waters.

Captain Sosinski was “acting in a belligerent manner,” and was “non-compliant,” the lieutenant said, adding that the boarding party restrained him “for officer safety.” He refused a request to take a breath test.

A Coast Guard officer piloted the Anna Mary back to the Coast Guard Station on Star Island. They docked at 2:28 a.m. on Saturday, and Captain Sosinski was turned over to waiting East Hampton Town police, who brought him to police headquarters in Wainscott.

There, he agreed to take a breath test, which reportedly produced a reading of .14 of 1 percent, well over the .08 reading that triggers a charge.

The anonymous caller “may well have saved his life,” Lieutenant Betts said.

The captain was arraigned later that morning in East Hampton Town Justice Court by Justice Steven Tekulsky. His attorney, Gordon Ryan, told the court his client was a longtime resident of Montauk, where he raised a family.

Justice Tekulsky released the defendant without bail after noting that he had no criminal record, though he did plead guilty to driving with ability impaired by alcohol, a violation, following a drunken-driving arrest in March 2013. He will return to court at a future date.

Captain Sosinski and his partner in the lobster business, John Aldridge (who was not on the boat on Saturday), were working about 30 miles south of Montauk in the early morning hours of July 24, 2013, when Mr. Aldridge, who was alone on deck on watch, fell overboard. Captain Sosinski was below deck, asleep, at the time. The boat was on autopilot.

A massive rescue mission ensued. A Coast Guard helicopter spotted Mr. Aldridge over 11 hours later, near death, clinging to a pair of lobster buoys. A story by Paul Tough about the incident, titled “A Speck in the Sea,” appeared the following January in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, and the movie rights to the story were purchased by Harvey Weinstein. The screenplay is being written by Jeff Pope, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter.