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‘I Don’t Think I’ll Pass It’

Tue, 05/23/2017 - 06:39

A minor traffic accident occurring midafternoon on Friday led to drunken-driving charges against a 50-year-old Southampton man whose breath test, according to East Hampton Town police, produced a reading just short of the level that would have required a trip to the hospital.

Police said Paul W. Guinchard’s 2008 Ford was turning right from Springs-Fireplace Road in Springs onto Hildreth Place when it crossed the double yellow lines and sideswiped a 2006 Chevrolet waiting at a stop sign.

“I had one drink at home,” he reportedly told the first officer to arrive, but declined to perform roadside sobriety tests when asked. “I don’t think I’m going to pass,” he added. “Do you want to go straight to the Breathalyzer? I’m going to fail that.”

He was right. At .28, his reading was close to the .31 figure that mandates a hospital visit for the person’s own safety.

Mr. Guinchard faces an aggravated misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated. In court the next morning, Brian DeSesa, who was on hand over the weekend to represent defendants without lawyers, told Justice Lisa R. Rana that Mr. Guinchard has ties to the community, while acknowledging that he had been arrested on the same charge in 2003.

“I am very concerned with this,” Justice Rana said. “This is a very high reading, with a motor vehicle accident.” She agreed, however, to release Mr. Guinchard without bail, warning him not to miss any court dates. 

Darin L. Roman of Manhattan, 48, who told the court he had been visiting for the weekend, faces the same charge. Town police said his 2017 Honda had rear-ended a vehicle that had stopped on Amagansett Main Street to pick up a pedestrian. His breath test came in at .18. Bail was set at $500, which was posted.

Also charged with aggravated D.W.I. was Robert H. Coleman Jr., 67, of East Hampton, who was arrested in Sag Harbor late Friday night after a fender-bender in the post office parking lot on Long Island Avenue. An officer who stopped him soon after on Meadow Street said the car was swerving across the road. At the same time as the stop, a witness to the incident had gone to police headquarters to report it.

Like Mr. Guinchard, Mr. Coleman was unable to take the field sobriety tests. At headquarters, his breath test exceeded the threshold for the misdemeanor aggravated D.W.I. charge. He was released the next morning without bail, though not before being additionally charged with leaving the scene of an accident.

Sag Harbor police charged yet another East Hampton man with aggravated D.W.I. during the week just past. Adisorn Chaikhram, 37, driving a 2015 BMW, was on Hampton Street early last Thursday morning, bound for East Hampton, when, according to the report, he swerved several times over the double yellow lines. His station-house breath test came in at .18. He too was released after arraignment without bail, in recognition of his local connections.

One man arrested over the weekend was charged with the more serious crime of felony aggravated D.W.I. Jose F. Suarez-Villa of Springs, 34, was stopped late Friday night on Abraham’s Path in Springs after his 2005 Dodge pickup made an erratic turn from Springs-Fireplace Road, police said. His breath test also came in at .18. With a prior conviction in 2010, the drunken-driving charge against him was automatically raised to the felony level. He additionally faces a misdemeanor charge of driving without a required ignition interlock device.

Bail was set at $7,500, and was not immediately posted. Mr. Suarez-Villa was taken to county jail, where his family later put up the bail. He is due back in court today.

Again in Sag Harbor, police stopped a 2017 Nissan driven by a South African, Andries C. van Zyl, 30, on Ferry Road soon after midnight Friday, saying the car had been speeding and swerving, and had struck a curb. Justice Rana, who presides over both East Hampton Town and Sag Harbor Village Justice Courts, set bail at $750 for the visitor to the village.

Two others arrested here over the weekend who refused to take the breath test were Benedict Titus Croak of Manhattan, 22, and Douglas Doucette, 26. Mr. Croak was stopped on Main Street in Amagansett early Sunday morning; police said he was driving a 2005 Chrysler east near Atlantic Avenue without benefit of headlights. He was freed without bail later that morning.

Mr. Doucette’s 2006 Volvo was speeding, police said, on Edgemere Street in Montauk early Saturday morning, before running a stop sign at the plaza. The resident of Pelham, N.Y., was released on $500 bail later that day. Both young men’s licenses were suspended because of their refusal to take the breath test.

Others arrested on misdemeanor D.W.I. charges had breath-test readings ranging from .09 to .12. They were Diane C. Viggiano, 55, of South Setauket, who was charged in Montauk early Sunday; Mary Claire Hennessy of Manhattan, 39, charged Sunday night in East Hampton Village, Michael Kilmer McCully, 58, of Manhattan and Northwest Woods, arrested Saturday night in East Hampton Village, and Ilyse D. Berger of Manhattan, 53, who was charged by Sag Harbor police on Saturday at around midnight.


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