Town Trustee Is Cuffed

A dispute between two men at a Maidstone Park beach barbecue Saturday night ended with an East Hampton Town Trustee, Nathaniel H. Miller, in handcuffs, charged by town police with choking the other man.



According to a witness, Mr. Miller and Clint Bennett, a town employee, were in a heated argument at about 7:30 Saturday evening. Mr. Bennett said, “Do something about it,” the witness reported, at which time Mr. Miller, according to the police report, used both arms to put him in a headlock. When he was released, Mr. Bennett reportedly said he felt faint.



Mr. Miller pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charge in East Hampton Town Justice Court at his arraignment Sunday morning, during which Justice Lisa R. Rana issued an order of protection against him to Mr. Bennett. She released Mr. Miller without bail, noting his long roots in the community. Mr. Miller, in a 2011 letter to the editor of The Star prior to his first run for trustee, said he was “a 13th-generation Miller, and on my mother’s side, I am a fourth-generation Vorpahl from Amagansett.”



Mr. Miller, who was endorsed by this newspaper in both his successful runs, was given an August return date to deal with the charge.