A Hoops Star Trades In Ball For Handcuffs
Three teens implicated in one or more robberies
By Taylor K. Vecsey
Timothy Small
Michael Russell
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(05/10/2007) Three teenagers, including Michael E. Russell, East Hampton High School’s star point guard, were charged this week with attempting to rob a bicyclist in East Hampton last month. One of the young men has been accused of having committed three robberies in East Hampton between July 2006 and April 2007.
East Hampton Town police said that Mr. Russell, the 17-year-old grandson of Coach Ed Petrie who led the Bonackers to an undefeated regular season this year, and two of his friends, Darius Z. Petty, 17, of East Hampton and Jeramee Griffin, 17, of Southampton, tried to rob a man riding his bicycle on Springs-Fireplace Road on April 2. Each was charged with felony counts of first and second-degree attempted robbery.
Mr. Petty is also accused of mugging two men on March 23 and July 2, according to Detective Sgt. Chris Anderson of the town police. Charged with an additional two counts of second-degree robbery, he is being held at the Suffolk County jail in Riverside after failing to post $20,000 cash bail.
The police investigation began on April 2 after Santiago Soto of East Hampton, 26, who is from Guatemala, told police that three men had jumped him at about 8:10 p.m. The men used a tree branch to hit him “across the back of the head, and knocked him off his bicycle,” police said.
“All three men were punching me and going through my pockets,” Mr. Soto reportedly told police through a Spanish translator. He said he fought them off until a passing motorist stopped to help. The men ran east through a path that police said connects to the Windmill Village Apartments on Accabonac Road.
Mr. Griffin said in a statement on May 2 that he and Mr. Petty had been “hanging out” when they ran into “another friend of mine, Mike Russell, bouncing a basketball” and wearing slippers, near the East Hampton Town Senior Citizens Center on Springs-Fireplace Road.
When they saw some men walking down the road, “Darius said to Mike and I, ‘Do you guys want to get someone?,’ meaning rob them. I knew Darius and Mike had done this before because they told me,” Mr. Griffin said in the statement.
According to Mr. Griffin, he and Mr. Russell told “Darius [it] wasn’t a good idea because it was in the middle of the road in the open.” Mr. Petty reportedly called them a derogatory name, and when he asked them again, Mr. Griffin said, he and Mr. Russell “shook our heads like, ‘Whatever.’ ”
The basketball player said in a statement after his arrest on Friday that he told his friends, “You guys do what you want. I have slippers on. I’m out,” then “ran” down the sidewalk toward the Windmill apartments. He said he heard “someone falling off a bike” and turned around and saw Mr. Petty “standing over the Spanish guy, and Jeramee took a few steps towards Darius.”
Mr. Griffin’s version varied from that of his friend. His statement said that “Darius tackled” and held the bicyclist by the arms and instructed his friends to check his pockets. When they were interrupted by the stopping motorist, Mr. Griffin “grabbed Darius and said, ‘Let’s go.’ ” As they ran, Mr. Griffin said, the boys realized that Mr. Russell had lost his slipper and dropped his basketball. They ran back and retrieved them.
“I said to Darius, ‘If we get caught this was the dumbest shit we have ever done,’ ” Mr. Griffin’s statement said.
While police were investigating the attempted robbery, they said, they came across another victim: Omar David Rodriguez-Martinez of East Hampton. Mr. Rodriguez-Martinez, 26, who is from Nicaragua, reportedly said that three or four men wearing hooded sweatshirts forced him to the ground while he was walking on Springs-Fireplace Road just north of West Drive on March 23 at around 8 p.m.
Again through a Spanish interpreter, Mr. Rodriguez-Martinez allegedly told police on April 17 that the men “started to punch and kick me throughout my entire body; one male put me in a choke hold and told me to shut up.” His cellphone and about $95 in cash were stolen.
A similar incident had been reported last summer. Klever Sinchi of East Hampton, a 25-year-old from Ecuador, told police through an interpreter that he had been walking alone on Springs-Fireplace Road, near West Drive, on July 2 at about 8 p.m. when a man who had been behind him said, “Money.”
“That’s all I understood in English,” Mr. Sinchi reportedly told police. “I said ‘No.’ I turned away to keep walking, and this guy punched me in my face under my left eye.” He fell to the ground and his nose started to bleed.
The man who punched him and someone else stole Mr. Sinchi’s Nextel cellphone and $50 cash. They also “grabbed a gold chain with a cross off my neck, and took off running.”
Police believe that Mr. Petty mugged both Mr. Rodriguez-Martinez and Mr. Sinchi. He did not give a statement.
Mr. Sinchi described the men who accosted him as being about 35 years old. However, Detective Anderson said, “it is not uncommon” for victims to mistake someone’s age. He also noted that when they allegedly committed each robbery all the men were wearing hoodies.
Collis Russell, Mr. Russell’s maternal grandfather, with whom he lives on Morris Park Lane, stood beside him before East Hampton Town Justice Lisa R. Rana on Saturday morning. After the arraignment, Collis Russell declined to comment.
Justice Rana said during the proceeding that, although Mr. Russell had no prior criminal history, “these are very, very serious charges.” She told the defendant that “the seriousness of these charges and the risk to the community if you’re released” were sufficient reason to set his bail at $7,000. The district attorney’s office had recommended $10,000.
Mr. Russell’s father, Michael Petrie of East Hampton, posted his bail.
Ed Petrie also attended the arraignment. Yesterday, Mr. Petrie said he wanted to wait to comment “until all the information is in.” He said, “It’s too early to know what actually happened.”
At his arraignment on Saturday morning, Mr. Petty sat with his face in his hands and shed tears as his mother told him how much she loved him.
Trevor M. Darrell, an attorney who represented Mr. Petty and Mr. Russell for the arraignment only, asked that Mr. Petty be released on his own recognizance.
“Not going to happen,” Justice Rana said.
It wasn’t Mr. Petty’s first time in court. In November he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal mischief and criminal trespass for his involvement in several burglaries and BB gun shootings in July. He was sentenced to three years of probation with alcohol and narcotics conditions, as well as 80 hours of community service and was due back in court on May 31 to prove that he had completed the community service.
“At the age of 17, you’ve built quite the criminal record,” Justice Rana told Mr. Petty.
“Hold your head up, baby,” his grandmother told him right after Justice Rana announced that his bail would be $20,000. The district attorney’s office had suggested $40,000. As of yesterday he had not posted bail.
Mr. Griffin already has two cases pending in court. He was charged with misdemeanor assault after allegedly stabbing a fellow student outside the Resort nightclub in East Hampton during a teen night there in October of 2005. In April of 2006 he was charged with felony criminal mischief and burglary. He was not able to post $7,000 bail after his arraignment on Tuesday.
Mr. Russell was a first-team All-Long Island player for the 2006-7 basketball season, and he also plays lacrosse and football. He will be allowed to continue to compete, according to Mike Burns, the high school’s athletic director, since he is entitled to “due process” at the school.
William Hartwell, who runs the Unity program on the East End and knows Mr. Russell from playing basketball with him, said he wasn’t entirely surprised by the charges because he “had been on the edge” of getting into trouble. “Unfortunately, it happens to young kids all the time,” Mr. Hartwell said. “He’s a player. . . . Players always find their way to certain circles.”
He said he hopes the incident will prove beneficial to Mr. Russell in the long run. “Sometimes you have to have your breakdown before you can have your breakthrough. I just hope this is his breakdown.”