Police & Courts

A roadside memorial now marks the place on Route 27 where Yuris Murillo Cruz was walking with her two young children on Wednesday when they were struck by a red pickup truck that fled the scene. Ms. Murillo Cruz died from her injuries, and now community members are mobilizing to help the family.

Six unwanted skateboarders were reported Saturday afternoon to be whizzing around the Apple Bank property at the intersection of Main and Spring Streets. They were leaving when police arrived.

A surge in real estate sales continues to produce record-breaking revenues for the Peconic Bay Community Preservation Fund.

A man believed to have stolen over $100,000 worth of jewelry from five houses while he worked as a heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning technician was arrested by East Hampton Town Police on Wednesday. 

East Hampton Town police, aided by a Suffolk Police helicopter crew, were searching Wednesday afternoon for a driver who fled a hit-and-run accident involving as many as three pedestrians that took place just before noon on Route 27 in Amagansett.

Emergency medical service personnel on the South Fork reported this week that 911 call volume was down in 2020 as a whole but up in the usually quiet months of November and December. "People are, I think, afraid to go in the ambulance to the hospital, so things we normally see, we're not seeing people calling for," said Deborah O'Brien, president of the Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

James Allman, 70, of Sagaponack was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital via a county medevac helicopter on Saturday around midnight, following a traffic accident at the intersection of Montauk Highway and Wainscott Northwest Road in Wainscott.

The East Hampton Town Police Department congratulated Sgt. Peter Schmitt last week on his retirement after more than 24 years on the force.

There was only one arrest on drunken-driving charges in East Hampton Town last week. On Saturday afternoon, town police reported clocking Luis Sigua-Sisalima's green 2005 Kia minivan at 59 miles per hour in a 30-m.p.h. zone on Abraham's Path in East Hampton, near Accabonac Highway.

Nine callers from all around town reported the sound of gunshots this week, signaling the start of 2021's open hunting season.

Two fires this week, one in a house and the other in a trailer, were swiftly handled by the East Hampton Fire Department, both in under an hour.

Christmas Day was not so merry for Manuel Pena-Tacuri, 32, of Montauk Highway in Amagansett, who was spotted there that morning drinking while driving his 2021 GMC, according to East Hampton Town police.

"It was a very different summer," said John Ryan Jr. Covid ensured that there were indeed unprecedented logistical differences, but nothing about the commitment of East Hampton Town's lifeguards had changed.

A red Specialized Fuse bicycle was last seen on Nov. 28 leaning against a fuel pump at the town marina on Three Mile Harbor. Brett Nicholson said he had special-ordered it from Khanh Sports for $2,700.

When East Hampton Town police responded last week to a minor rear-ender accident on Montauk Highway by Buckskill Road, they found that Johnny Rojas Orellana of East Hampton, whose car was hit, had been driving without a license. He will appear in court on Jan. 6.

For many people, 2020 has been challenging, but as the chief of the East Hampton Ambulance Association, Lisa Charde has led a team of volunteers and professional paramedics in harrowing conditions. 

At the Buckskill Tennis and Winter Club on Saturday night, a man told police he'd fallen on the ice close by a young girl, scaring her. Her father then "got in his face," yelling at him for skating too close to his daughter, and "told him to grow up," the report said. The man said the father grabbed him, and while trying to push him away he struck him in the face.

Mary Murphy-Ballreich of East Hampton, 47, was arrested on Dec. 2 at the East Hampton Veterinary Group on a misdemeanor charge of "torturing or injuring animals/failure to provide sustenance."

Manuel Tenen-guanga of Southampton, 30, was arrested twice last Thursday.

After 31 years with the East Hampton Town Police Department, 26 of them leading the DARE program in schools, Officer Kim Notel's retirement on Tuesday was the start of a new era, not just for her but for everyone who knew "Officer Kim" in the classrooms and on the roads.

Route 114 near Whooping Hollow Road in East Hampton was closed because of a downed utility pole that fell Thursday morning. There were no injuries, according to East Hampton Town police, and PSEG was working to repair the damage. 

"Lewd acts" were reported taking place in the back of a dark sedan behind the Division Street hardware store on the evening of Dec. 9, but the car was gone when an officer arrived to investigate.

A single motorist was charged with drunken driving in East Hampton Town last week.

Elizabeth Whelan Kotz, who on Tuesday became the first woman to be elected a commissioner in the Bridgehampton Fire District, said she hopes she is "the first of many to come."

Two drivers in East Hampton and one in Sag Harbor were charged last week with aggravated unlicensed driving after police stopped them for alleged traffic infractions.

Deer in the headlights caused a few collisions last week, but no drivers were hurt.

Police are blaming shotgun rounds for broken back windows at a Shore Road residence on Friday afternoon. The homeowner noted increased hunting and clay pigeon shooting in the area. Damage was estimated at $4,500.

Best Pizza and Dive Bar on Napeague is among the latest round of 36 restaurants in New York State that have had their liquor licenses suspended for alleged violations of public health laws instituted under Covid-19.

Charles Streep’s attorney, Randy Mastro, the personal attorney to Rudy Giuliani, filed a motion to dismiss David Peralta’s lawsuit minutes before midnight on Wednesday.

Charles Streep, whose felony assault charges in last summer's alleged road rage case involving David Peralta of Springs were reduced recently to misdemeanors, is now facing similar charges — assault, battery, and intentional infliction of personal injury — in civil court.