Police & Courts

A man described to police as “a drunk 20-something,” wearing black shorts and T-shirt, was staggering through traffic on Flamingo Road around dinnertime on June 8, prompting a call to police. He was gone by the time they arrived, and a search yielded no results.

The blaze that destroyed a house at 3 Fair Hills Lane in Bridgehampton Friday night had been "unfortunately burning for quite a while before anyone dialed 911," according to Nick Hemby, the chief of the Bridgehampton Fire Department.

A fire completely destroyed one house on Fair HIlls Lane in Bridgehampton and damaged three others, one of them severely, late Friday night, according to Southampton Town police.

On Memorial Day, “pool jumpers” hit an Amagansett property. A woman was returning home after a day at the beach when she saw three men and two women leaving her backyard, dripping wet. One of the men told her husband he had “always admired” their house before they all walked off.

A driver in a "newer style" Range Rover fled the scene of an accident last Thursday afternoon in Amagansett.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney alleged on Monday that Mark Ripolone, 34, "financially exploited his customers, most of them small businesses."

A garbage truck, a plumbing van and a pickup truck one day; a pickup and two S.U.V.'s the next.

A woman thrown overboard when her boat exploded Sunday afternoon in the waters off North Haven survived the incident, though the boat did not, according to the New York State Harbormaster and Bay Constable Association.

East Hampton Village police were notified by town cops on Saturday night about an erratic driver who may have been in an accident in Amagansett, and found the man on Main Street near David’s Lane, driving “recklessly.”

Someone couldn’t negotiate a turn onto Cedar Street on Friday night and hit the berm, fence, and ultimately the office building at Saskas Surveyor Company. The driver fled, leaving behind parts from a red Ford Mustang.

Concerned that the takeout she had gotten for dinner would slide off the seat, a woman reached over, lost control of her car, and ran into a tree.

Another mass shooting has claimed the lives of school children, with at least 19 students and two teachers dead in Uvalde, Tex., after an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday. The deadly attack has police and schools on the South Fork on high alert, though no specific threats have been identified.

Police were called on the morning of May 16 to 66 Newtown Lane, where an older man was reportedly yelling profanities. Officers found him sitting on a bench, not yelling anymore. He said was waiting for a store to open, and was “tired of this place.”

East Hampton Town police lodged a felony charge of driving while intoxicated early Saturday morning after seeing a 2001 black Dodge swerving over the double lines on Springs-Fireplace Road.

It didn’t take long for the East Hampton Village lifeguard squad to get called into action this season, and their save of two boys caught in a rip current provided a good chance to educate the young swimmers about the dangers of such currents and how to deal with them.

Two drivers whose cars had been stopped on the side of the road, plus one whom police pulled over for a reported traffic violation, are now facing charges of driving while intoxicated.

A woman called police last Thursday to ask if they knew where to find a "male soul mate." An officer told her that police have no special knowledge about the location of soul mates and asked if she was okay, or felt the need to go to the hospital. She said no, she was healthy and in good spirits.

A man who police said is homeless was charged with petty larceny at the Montauk 7-Eleven store.

Joseph Grippo's appearance in Suffolk County Criminal Court on Thursday was markedly different from the last time he appeared there before Justice Stephen L. Braslow. Instead of insults, Mr. Grippo apologized to the judge, who on April 25 had held him in contempt and ordered him out of the courtroom.

Three people were charged with driving while intoxicated in the last week.

A mysterious "foaming chemical" was observed on the shoulder of Montauk Highway in Amagansett on the afternoon of May 3. By the time they arrived, the officers could not locate the spill.

Joseph DeCristofaro has been named the first honorary chief in the East Hampton Fire Department's 132-year history. 

Summing up his department’s just-released report on police activity in 2021, East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo sounded justifiably content. “Some of the national trends in both personal crime and property crime that seem to have been spiking have not impacted us here," he said. "We’ve trended down in almost every criminal defense category over the last few years."

A glider flying too low over the beach led police to search areas near Napeague Lane, Atlantic Avenue, and Indian Wells on the morning of April 25, but the glider was not found.

After an officer clocked his Jeep going 51 miles per hour in a 30 m.p.h. zone in Northwest and noticed a strong smell of alcohol, an East Hampton man ended up spending the night at police headquarters before being arraigned the next morning on drunken-driving charges.

Around dinnertime on April 18, an East Quogue woman was headed east on Montauk Highway near Sayre’s Path in Wainscott when her 2007 Honda crossed the double yellow lines into the westbound lane, and crashed head-on into a 2007 Toyota.

An East Hampton man received some scary phone calls on March 15. The caller said he’d kidnapped the man’s wife and demanded $3,000 to release her. The man was told to go to a Mastic 7-Eleven with the money and warned not to talk to anyone about it.

Town police charged three East Hampton men with driving while intoxicated last week.

Joseph Grippo of Montauk, who is facing a second-degree murder charge following the death of a former friend in June 2019, was held in contempt during a Monday appearance at Suffolk County Criminal Court, and ordered out of the courtroom and back to county jail after reportedly cursing multiple times at the judge.

“It’s been my pleasure, and honor, to serve as the village’s chief engineer for the last four years,” East Hampton Village Fire Chief Gerard Turza Jr. told the village board as he prepared to pass on the title of chief to Duane Forrester.