Police & Courts

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

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.

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.

When they talk about the birth of their second daughter, Cody and Lauren Vichinsky will have quite the story to tell.

A Pennsylvania woman who had been reported missing was found in Amagansett last Thursday when she crashed her car into a utility pole.

According to East Hampton Town police, a man brandished a weapon during an altercation and punched a victim multiple times in the face, causing pain and bleeding and necessitating medical attention.

Graffiti, including drawings of “male genitalia” together with the statement that “life sucks,” were found on Friday at the bus stop on Newtown Lane.

Looking out his side-view mirror, a driver of a cement truck watched in horror as the cement drum broke off the bed of the vehicle, which then overturned.

Near sunset on Friday, an erratic driver was reported near a Laura’s Lane house in Springs. Police found a blue and white Mustang near the pavilion at Maidstone Park and let the driver know he’d been seen driving well over the speed limit. The man said he’d observe the limit going forward and was waved on.

A loud crash shortly after midnight on Sunday alerted a Sag Harbor Village police officer on routine traffic patrol at Hampton Street that something was awry.

Police reported the arrests this week of two people on charges of drunken driving.

Mysterious McDonald's hamburgers, accompanied by greeting cards, showed up close to midnight Friday at a Bon Pinck Way property in Springs. One burger was found in the mailbox, one was at the beginning of the driveway, another was by the car, and yet another on the front porch.

Two separate accidents resulted in injuries to drivers this week.

The St. Patrick's Day parade in Montauk on March 27 led to some alcohol-fueled, rowdy behavior, according to East Hampton Town police, who were called on two occasions to the Shagwong Tavern. One person there described the place as packed wall to wall with revelers, despite a $10 cover charge. In the end, a couple of arrests, and a separate charge of harassment, soured the festive mood.

Late on the afternoon of March 21, an East Hampton Village officer watched a man drive a 2021 Mercedes-Benz north on Main Street, cross the double yellow lines, and make an unsafe left turn. As he was being pulled over, the car smacked into the curb, causing it to stop. The man ended up with a driving while intoxicated charge and a night at police headquarters.

Someone attempted to gain control over the social media and PayPal account of the Sag Harbor Liquor Store on March 23. Police advised the business to change its passwords. Later that day, the store owners received harassing text messages, wishing their failure and demise. They wanted the incidents on record.

Police recorded a single accident on local roads last week involving a 2014 Dodge pickup thats brakes had locked up in Springs.

When police pulled over a driver in East Hampton on March 23 because his car had "an obstructed view," the officer reported seeing a glass pipe and smelled a strong odor of marijuana in the car, then found Ziploc bags and a digital scale.

In March of 2021, when police charged a man with robbing and kidnapping a woman in Springs, community members were shocked to hear of it. A woman reported being robbed of thousands of dollars and her cellphone in broad daylight, as she sat in her car, parked at the Springs School around student dismissal time. Fast forward a year: Jay Rowe of Springs, 48, pleaded guilty on Friday to first-degree robbery, second-degree kidnapping, and grand larceny, all felonies.

After a man fell asleep at the wheel on Route 27 near the overlook in Montauk, his pickup truck crossed the oncoming lane and hit a guard rail just west of Beech Street.

A man from Riverhead ended up with an appearance ticket when a traffic stop in Montauk revealed that pickup truck was missing the interlock device with which it should have been equipped.

A motorcycle accident on Accabonac Road in East Hampton Wednesday evening claimed the life of Jefferson D. Eames, 53, of Springs. 

Teenagers were caught aggressively driving the free-ride vehicles on Lumber Lane in East Hampton Village on the afternoon of March 14, and then walking away from the vehicles, one of which may have crashed into another. Police found no damage to the vehicles, but warned the youths to stay away from them.

A Kingston, N.Y., woman was westbound on Old Montauk Highway in Montauk around dinnertime on March 13, when, according to the police report, she drove off the road and hit a street sign. The sign was not enough to stop her 2010 Subaru, which continued through dense brush, then across the Lincoln Road turnoff, and then into an adjacent wooded lot, before being stopped by a tree.

The house that William Lambert and Gussie Briggs built on Narrow Lane in Bridgehampton in 1968 wasn’t just a house. It was a central gathering place where family members and friends convened for more than five decades. It was the home that Tony Lambert, one of their children, was powerless to save as flames tore through it overnight on Friday.

A man going 74 miles per hour in a 55 m.p.h. zone also crossed the double yellow lines multiple times as he streaked west, leading to a police stop and a D.W.I. charge.

A Montauk woman told police last week that she’d found a grenade near the water by Shagwong Point, and had left a big stick at the spot so police could find it more easily — as indeed they did. A plastic toy grenade.

Next to a display of 34 recovered handbags and a phalanx of Suffolk County police officers, including East Hampton Village Police Lieutenants Gregory Brown and Jeffrey Erikson, County District Attorney Ray Tierney told a crowd of reporters and photographers on Wednesday that an “organized retail theft ring” was behind the March 3 grab of $94,000 worth of handbags from Balenciaga, a high-end retailer in East Hampton.

Police said they have arrested four people following a brazen middle-of-the-day theft last Thursday from a shop on Newtown Lane in East Hampton Village, during which nearly 50 designer handbags and accessories, together valued at $91,600, were stolen. The robbery took less than 30 seconds from start to finish, police said. A fifth suspect remained at large.