Police & Courts

Deer were in the headlights this week, causing three accidents in quick succession. One resulted in injury, sending 40-year-old E. Bonillabeernard of Ronkonkoma to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital for chest pain. An Amagansett ambulance took him there on Saturday at 6:45 a.m. after his 2017 Toyota hit a deer.

On the afternoon of June 9, a shopper bought a few things at Shine, a women's clothing boutique on Main Street in Montauk, but it also appeared that she'd left the store with three bracelets, a T-shirt, and a pair of shorts, all unpaid. Police found a woman matching an employee's description in the parking lot of Round Swamp Farm on South Elmwood Avenue, and took her back to the store, where she paid for the items and was told never to return. 

Three motorists were charged last week with driving while intoxicated, two in Sag Harbor and the third in Amagansett.

Last Thursday at 3 p.m., Cristian Tapia of Sag Harbor, 38, was pulled over at the Main Street-Brick Kiln Road intersection there. Officers charged him with aggravated D.W.I., a misdemeanor, and two violations, claiming he had changed lanes unsafely and had an open container of alcohol in the vehicle. He was held overnight for a Friday morning arraignment.

An East Hampton man arrested on May 28 found himself in trouble with town police again four days later, and it all started when a 2012 Dodge Ram pickup truck was reported stolen from an undisclosed location on Gingerbread Lane in East Hampton Village.

East Hampton Town and Sag Harbor Village police levied misdemeanor drunken driving charges against multiple drivers over the last 11 days.

Town police said that Justin Finney, 40, of Three Mile Harbor Road, East Hampton, was headed south on Cedar Street near Old Orchard Lane on May 30 around midnight when he drifted from the pavement and hit a street sign then a tree. An officer found him a short distance away from his 2003 Toyota. He seemed intoxicated, they said. Mr. Finney was held overnight and arraigned the next morning by Justice Rana.

Early on the evening of June 1, the presence of a homeless man outside Stop and Shop prompted two calls, but officers were unable to locate him. A man asleep in his silver Lincoln in the store's parking lot was the object of another call the next day. He told police he was about to go home. 

Injuries were reported in two traffic accidents last week, though neither required a trip to the hospital.

Despite the cold, rainy weather, a number of arrests over the last week signaled the start of the busy season on the South Fork.

A Maidstone Avenue woman told police on May 26 that her neighbor had moved survey stakes a foot or so from where they belonged, making her property that much smaller. She was advised that it was a civil matter.

Despite the unprecedented challenges of policing during a pandemic and nationwide scrutiny in the wake of multiple civilian deaths while in police custody, Chief Michael Sarlo was upbeat in summarizing the East Hampton Town Police Department's annual report to the town board.

Joseph Keane of Amagansett, 59, was driving a 2013 Toyota at about 5:30 p.m. on May 22 when, headed west on Amagansett Main Street, he attempted to make a left turn toward Bluff Road and struck a telephone pole. Mr. Keane, who has a previous conviction for driving while intoxicated within the past 10 years, could not perform roadside sobriety tests, reported East Hampton Town police, who charged him with felony D.W.I.

Two saves on the water over the holiday weekend were efficient and without major injury, a good warm-up for chaotic summer months likely to come. One involved a kiteboarder tangled in his equipment and the other a pair of inflatable boats, each with five people on board, that were caught in two-to-three-foot waves in significant winds.

Highlights of a quiet week included a report of "a dog appearing to be a pit bull" wandering on Newtown Lane without an owner at 9 p.m. on May 17. Police did not find it.

Stephanie McNamara Bitis, a former general manager of Long Island Radio Broadcasting, admitted in November to using a company credit card for more than 600 personal expenses, but it wasn't until last week that her attorney and the assistant United States attorney prosecuting the case agreed on the exact dollar figure involved.

Police this week charged one person with driving while intoxicated and booked seven others on traffic and trespassing misdemeanors.

East Hampton Town Police reported that on the evening of May 12, Hai Cao of Amagansett did not see a jogger as he turned left in his 2015 Toyota from Cedar Street onto Osborne Lane in East Hampton. Mr. Cao reportedly said to police that his view was limited and by the time he saw the jogger, Tint Juri of East Hampton, crossing from one side of Osborne Lane to the other, he could not avoid hitting him.

"Three images of the male genitalia were spray-painted on either end of the fence" at 7 North Main Street on May 10, East Hampton Village police reported.

After receiving a complaint last Thursday night concerning a sexual relationship between a 26-year-old man and a minor under the age of 17, East Hampton Town police arrested Byron Torres of Daniel's Hole Road in Wainscott on charges of statutory rape. Contact between the two, police said, was from around Feb. 1 to April 30.

"We're grateful that the small fire at the restaurant last week caused only minimal damage and everyone is safe, thanks to our local firefighters who acted quickly," a spokesperson for the restaurant said yesterday. "We're working closely with the Town of East Hampton . . . to reopen better than ever by Memorial Day weekend. We'll know the exact date shortly of our reopening next week, and will share on @mobysny once we're able to confirm."

When a woman was dropped off unresponsive in the foyer of East Hampton Town police headquarters in Wainscott in February of last year, "that was my first experience of something like that," said Detective Michael Coleman, one of the officers who rushed to the front of the building.

David Wisner, the low-flying pilot who was charged with second-degree reckless endangerment after buzzing Sag Harbor at around 5:30 p.m. on April 13 and, minutes before that, areas of Springs, was arraigned on May 7 in Sag Harbor Village Justice Court for the alleged misdemeanor. Mr. Wisner's 90-day ban from East Hampton Airport is ongoing. Court conferences begin on July 2; meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration is still investigating the incident.

The second jetty at Georgica Beach was slippery on Friday morning, to which the man who fell and pulled a muscle in his right quad might attest. He called in to ask for help getting off the beach, “so he could get medical attention on his own,” police said.

Two men were ticketed for allegedly driving while intoxicated in East Hampton Town this week.

Town police reported the arrest of a man in East Hampton on the morning on April 27 on a misdemeanor charge of driving a vehicle not equipped with an interlock device, which is needed to turn over the engine of a car driven by someone previously convicted for driving while intoxicated.

With the onset of warmer weather, once again comes news of rental scams on the South Fork. One was reported in Montauk this week.

The sentencing of a former Long Island Radio Broadcasting executive for credit card fraud has been postponed while the defense and prosecution dispute the amount of money involved in the crime.

Eastbound Montauk Highway in Water Mill reopened at approximately 10:30 a.m. Monday following a crash involving a motorcycle, according to Lt. Susan Ralph of the Southampton Town Police Department. Injuries were minor, she said.

David Wisner, the pilot who flew his single-engine airplane in what local police have called "a dangerous and reckless manner over Sag Harbor Village" on April 13, has been charged with second-degree reckless endangerment and been suspended for 90 days from using East Hampton Airport.

One airplane-related arrest last week, covered separately on this page, was the only break from the usual reports of road-related incidents.

A Highway Behind the Pond resident was ticketed last Thursday for draining his pool water onto his neighbor's property, on Earth Day no less.