Police & Courts

The Hampton Lifeguard Association honored Tom Field, a CPR and first-aid instructor for 40 years, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. for getting the state to recognize Jet Skis as rescue equipment , and Tom Casse, a surf instructor and trained lifeguard who made a dramatic nighttime save in Montauk in 2022.

A 75-year-old East Hampton was traveling west through Amagansett in a red Ford Escape on the evening of June 16 when a black sedan lost control and swerved into oncoming traffic, spinning 180 degrees and then striking his car and another.

Southampton Town police detectives and the Sag Harbor Village fire marshal are still investigating the drowning death of a 2-year-old boy at a house on North Haven two weeks ago, an incident that prompted the North Haven mayor to remind village residents about New York State’s swimming pool rules over the weekend.

Just over a year after she first filed a formal complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights, Officer Andrea M. Kess of the East Hampton Town Police Department has made new allegations that she has been the target of retaliation for stating her case.

A postal worker was driving along her Oyster Pond Lane mail route with the windows rolled down on the afternoon of July 15, when, she told police, a man watering his lawn “decided to turn the hose at her,” splashing her in the face. Officers arrived quickly, and informed the man that he could be charged with harassment. This time, though, they simply documented the incident and let him off with a warning.

East Hampton Village police made two felony arrests last week, one involving alleged drug possession, the other driving while intoxicated. 

The 911 system for East Hampton Town and Village is operational despite the global outage of Microsoft-based technology and systems that impacted hospitals and emergency services in other regions Friday morning and also grounded planes and disrupted banking and broadcasting.

“Shall we have a hook and ladder co.?” asked “A Native” in an 1886 East Hampton Star letter to the editor. “Your village has never suffered seriously from the ravages of the fire-fiend,” the letter warned. A year later, William S. Everett built East Hampton’s first hook and ladder truck, launching the journey of the East Hampton Fire Department, which celebrates its 125th anniversary this year.

“A fisheries fraud conspiracy” spanning about three years, at least 200 fishing trips, and 200,000 pounds of illegally taken fluke and black sea bass has now resulted in a 30-month prison sentence for a Montauk boat captain, Christopher Winkler.

A lifeguard at Kirk Park Beach in Montauk spotted a man walking with his son on the dunes Friday afternoon and asked him to leave the protected area. The man “called him a few names,” he told police, who were unable to find the pair.

“Six commercial noise complaints, resulting in two summonses issued; 21 residential noise complaints, with three summons issued; 23 motor vehicle accidents; 58 medical-aided cases; 25 traffic citations issued and five arrests; 14 town ordinance summonses, primarily Montauk Main Street and Amagansett Main Street for open alcohol, public urination, and littering; 581 parking summonses, and  52 town code summonses.”

A guest at the Ocean Resort Inn in Montauk went for a beach walk on June 6 and tossed his pants over his shoulder while walking, he told police. Some cards, his Airpods, and $250 fell out of a pocket, he later realized, and when he retraced his steps he found a group of youths going through his possessions. When confronted, the group fled in a car. Police located it, and after the mother of one boy arrived on the scene the man was reimbursed.

The boy pulled unconscious from a North Haven pool on Sunday died on Wednesday at Stony Brook University Hospital, Southampton Town police confirmed on Thursday.

A 2-year-old boy was pulled unresponsive from a swimming pool at a North Haven house on Sunday afternoon, Southampton Town police said on Monday. The North Haven incident on Sunday is the fifth near-drowning or drowning in a swimming pool reported at a Suffolk County house since June 28.

Jimmy Minardi, a veteran lifeguard on East Hampton Village beaches, has announced the launch of the East Hampton Village Surf Rescue Response Team, a new nonprofit organization that will bring in even more helping hands when swimmers are in danger.

Three men on a boat, docked off Long Wharf in Sag Harbor on the evening of June 24, left the boat and stepped over a gate to get into Le Bilboquet when a manager approached and told one of them that his shorts and flip-flops were not proper attire for the restaurant. Words were apparently exchanged, because the manager later reported the incident to police.

Two accidents on local roads last Thursday resulted in ambulance rides for several drivers and passengers.

A 36-year-old man was arrested on the afternoon of June 24 in Wainscott on a charge of aggravated drunken driving, a class E felony, due to a prior D.W.I. conviction.

East Hampton Town police have announced the arrest on June 19 of a 31-year-old Montauk man on a charge of first-degree rape, a class B felony. Court documents state that he was involved in an incident with a 6-year-old girl.

Southampton Town detectives are still investigating an attempted burglary that occurred at Citarella in Bridgehampton shortly before midnight on Sunday.

A report of a distressed swimmer near the Maidstone Drive beach access brought lifeguards racing into the ocean aboard a Jet Ski on Sunday. A kiteboarder out in the surf proved not to be in distress, though — just waiting for a gust of wind.

A resident of Benson Drive in Montauk called police on the morning of June 10 to report a man “weed-whacking a path through the wetlands” near his house. The man, reported to be wearing a T-shirt, sweatpants, and flip-flops, had attempted to cut through brush on the caller’s property before being stopped. He fled before police arrived.

Representatives of a pesticide company were ticketed in recent days for allegedly peddling the company's services without a peddling permit in Springs and Montauk.

­East Hampton Town police have arrested a South Carolina man who they say was responsible for a March 15 hit-and-run crash on North Main Street that left a pedestrian hospitalized.

Yes, it was that Justin Timberlake — singer, actor, producer, and Disney star in his youth — who was arraigned on a charge of driving while intoxicated in Sag Harbor on Tuesday morning.

Two men riding an e-bike in Montauk remain hospitalized in stable condition after being struck by an S.U.V. in a hit-and-run incident in Montauk on Saturday evening. The driver was arrested about an hour after the crash.

On Friday, Justice Jerry Garguilo of the Supreme Court of Suffolk County ruled that the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association, a nonprofit that had served the village since 1975, could no longer exist, and ordered it dissolved. 

A foggy mist surrounding a Navy Road, Montauk, house resembled smoke, prompting a "structure fire" call to police on Sunday. An officer responded and discovered the mist was from a power washer being used to clean the house.

A car crashed into the exterior of the Zadig and Voltaire boutique at the corner of Main Street and the Circle in East Hampton Village around on Saturday morning. There were no injuries.

At around 2 a.m. on May 25, someone called the police after seeing social media posts of kids drinking on Big Albert's beach. Officers, approaching from the Barnes Hole entrance, observed about 100 youths partying around a beach fire with music playing from a speaker. Many of them fled into the dunes when they saw the police. "Although several cooperative youths assisted with cleanup, a significant amount of litter remained," police reported. The Parks Department was called in to pick it up.