Members of motorcycle clubs from across the East End gathered in East Hampton Town Justice Court last Thursday morning to show support for a fellow cyclist, Sidney R. Hughes, 37,  of Montauk, who was seriously injured on June 21 when struck by Jason Monet’s BMW. East Hampton Town police charged Mr. Monet, of Stamford, Conn., with drunken driving after the accident.

The club members, from Enders East and Enders West, the Road Reapers, Bikers for Christ, and Long Island Abate, looked on as Mr. Monet, 43, made a required court appearance. He currently faces a single misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated, but his case is before a grand jury, which could indict him on additional charges including felony assault.

“I just want to see justice done,” said a member of the Road Reapers of Riverhead, who identified himself as Russ. “I don’t want to see it get swept under the rug.”

“When motorcyclists are hit, the punishment should be the same as when a child gets hit,” said Jim Barr, president of Long Island Abate, a club dedicated to making drivers more attentive to vulnerable motorcyclists.

Mr. Monet stood before East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky as Sean McDonnell, an assistant district attorney, informed the court of the grand jury proceedings. If felony charges are brought, the case will be moved to State Supreme Court, either in Riverside or Central Islip.

After the brief session, the club members left the courthouse and rode out to visit Mr. Hughes, who has undergone several surgeries with more to come. He may never regain full use of his left leg.

Lying on a couch in his living room, he said he could not recall much about the accident. “I just remember the sound of it happening. He pulled right in front of me.”

Police said Mr. Monet had been headed west on Napeague, near Cyril’s, when he veered left across the highway near the entrance to the Ocean Vista resort, where he was staying. “I was arguing with my girlfriend and I went to turn into the motel parking lot and I didn’t see the guy on the motorcycle,” he later told police.

The eastbound motorcycle skidded across the road, throwing its rider about 100 feet. He was unconscious when police found him.

“They said I lost 50 percent of my blood by the time I got to the hospital,” Mr. Hughes said. He suffered a severe compound fracture of his left femur, two broken bones in the lower leg, a badly fractured ankle, a fractured wrist and thumb, and a dislocated hip.

A Suffolk County helicopter flew him to Stony Brook University Hospital. In his first days there, when he was conscious, he complained of searing pain in the hip area. Doctors at first attributed it to the dislocation, but eventually discovered that a piece of the BMW had lodged under his skin. It was surgically removed.

A friend and fellow member of Enders East MC, Justin Portell, took cellphone photos of the injuries in the hours and days after the crash. They show Mr. Hughes’s face swollen and blackened with bruises. One eye socket was damaged, an injury that is still awaiting repair. During the first week of his hospital stay, Mr. Hughes was unable to see.

Six weeks later, his left leg held together with pins and rods, he still takes six oxycodone pills a day, down from 10. Once a day he has to inject himself in the stomach with an anti-blood-clotting drug. The hardest part of the day, he said, is just after waking up.

The cyclists questioned the handling of the case, saying Mr. Monet should have been charged with leaving the scene of an accident. Mr. Portell claimed that he drove into the resort’s parking lot after the crash and parked up against shrubbery, concealing the BMW’s damaged front end, and that he was not in the car when police found him.

The club members suggested that police treat motorcyclists differently from other victims of road accidents.

Capt. Chris Anderson of the town police denied that assertion this week. The department handles each accident involving injury in the same way, he said, devoting a great deal of time and resources no matter who is involved.

As Mr. Hughes lay on the couch last Thursday, his friends were dismantling what was left of his beloved 2004 Yamaha Midnight Star 1700. “It’s totaled. Snapped the frame right behind the gooseneck,” said a member of Enders West. Mr. Hughes was giving what was still usable to a man who has a similar model.

“Make sure you put those parts to good use,” Mr. Hughes said as the men got set to leave. “You guys all ride safe.”

“Anything you need, we’ll be here,” came the reply.

Later, speaking with Mr. Portell and his wife, Dawn, Mr. Hughes said he owed his life to a guest at the Ocean Vista who had called 911 on the night of the accident and a couple who had covered him with a blanket as he lay bleeding on the gravel.

“I’d love to know who it was, so I could thank them myself,” he said. “I had a guardian angel on my side.”

PSEG Long Island, which recently added Shelter Island to the list of towns where its work has stirred up displeasure and controversy, has announced a new plan for the South Fork that falls short of details, according to Supervisor Larry Cantwell and Mayor Paul Rickenbach of East Hampton Town and Village.

PSEG has called the South Fork “the highest-load-growth region on Long Island.” Its new proposal, called Utility 2.0, aims at improving energy efficiency as well as developing renewable energy sources in order to reduce peak demand. It proposes investing up to $200 million between 2015 and 2018, with no effect on ratepayers until after 2016.

Gordian Raacke, a member of the town’s energy sustainability committee and the director of Renewable Energy Long Island, wrote in a letter to the editor this week that the plan “fails to offer a vision” of a transition from carbon-intensive energy sources to renewable energy, even as the town has adopted a goal of meeting 100 percent of the community’s energy needs with renewable sources.

Mr. Raacke and others spoke at a required “technical conference” and hearing on the long-range PSEG plan, held in Stony Brook last Thursday. The utility has promised to hold “community outreach” meetings across Long Island, specifically on the South Fork and in the Rockaways, “communities that we target for investment,” according to PSEG. As of yesterday, no dates had been announced.

In a joint letter to the company, Supervisor Cantwell and Mayor  Rickenbach asked that a meeting take place in East Hampton, to give the public “the opportunity to understand, participate in, and comment on” the plan.

PSEG’s work here on a 6.2-mile overhead electrical distribution line, which began in late winter, has engendered numerous complaints about unsightly poles and high-voltage wires on residential streets, and a lawsuit by a group of residents over possible environmental effects.

The work, between a substation in the village and another in Amagansett, is needed, PSEG has said, to provide power in case the primary system goes down, and to meet peak demand. The installation of poles and lines is complete, but work on the Amagansett substation has been stalled since the spring, when the town issued a stop-work order asserting that PSEG had failed to obtain site plan approval for it. That matter is before a court.

A similar situation unfolded in North Hempstead, and most recently on Shelter Island, where residents oppose the development of a new substation.

In comments at last Thursday’s hearing, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. concurred with the two East Hampton officials, pointing out that the PSEG plan lacks details about specific projects planned here. Figures reflecting the company’s “total investment” and expected annual energy savings and demand reduction were not provided, Mr. Thiele said, only listed as “to be determined.”

In a section called “South Fork Peak Load Growth,” PSEG says it has determined that additional electrical transmission “reinforcements” will be needed here, with $97 million in “conventional infrastructure” improvements required by 2017 and another $197 million needed through 2022.

The estimated investment would cover “primarily new underground transmission cables and substation work,” according to the plan. Solar and other alternative power generation projects, which are being developed, can help to provide the needed power, the plan says.

While expressing support for its goal of energy sustainability, the two East Hampton officials’ letter to PSEG said that “we do have a number of questions concerning the goal of constructing conventional infrastructure, transmission reinforcements, and cable projects . . . The discussion must be public and transparent.”

Also this week, opponents of the East Hampton transmission lines placed ads doubting the efficacy of the new poles and lines in a hurricane, and renewed calls for the backup system line to be buried.

In press releases and in the ad, Save East Hampton, a grassroots group, also called for East Hampton to receive some part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency money earmarked for energy resiliency and storm protection projects, to pay the estimated $24 million it would cost to put the lines underground.

In the ad, Save East Hampton asserts that the newly installed utility poles, designed to withstand winds of up to 130 miles per hour, are at risk of being blown down by a severe hurricane. “There have been 28 hurricanes along the Atlantic Ocean from 1995 to 2005 that have exceeded 133 [miles per hour],” the ad says.

According to National Weather Service hurricane records, winds here have not reached that strength. A peak gust of 130 miles per hour was reported at Block Island during Hurricane Carol in 1954, with gusts over the rest of the affected area of 100 to 125 miles per hour, while sustained winds of 91 miles per hour, with a gust to 121 miles per hour reported on Block Island, were recorded in Massachusetts during the Hurricane of 1938.

Citing the many risks to the East End during and after a devastating storm — an inability to evacuate over limited, crowded roads, sustained power outages, and the possibility of widespread wreckage blocking repair crews’ access and approaches to essential services such as the hospital — the Save East Hampton ad insists that the town, at high risk, should move ahead of other communities to receive a share of the FEMA funds available for projects such as burying electric lines.

“Governor Cuomo’s new utility PSEG/LIPA has spent our high rates putting up a 6.2-mile poorly planned above-ground transmission line with monster poles bisecting East Hampton that is inadequate ‘backup’ power,” the ad says.

Save East Hampton advocates an alternative, a 4.4-mile underground transmission line which, it says, “would profoundly increase the safety of all residents and tourists in East Hampton during the next big hurricanes.”

The group asks about the criteria for distribution of the FEMA money. “Are a designated high risk for hurricanes, shelter in place with only one evacuation route, inaccessibility to a hospital and being surrounded on three sides by tidal waters priorities for funding to reduce risks and increase safety?” one release asks. It also wonders how the funding decisions are made.

According to PSEG’s Utility 2.0 plan, a $700 million FEMA grant to address “hardening and resiliency” of the electrical system, following the destruction wrought by Hurricane Sandy, will be used to repair damaged substations and lines as well as to install equipment that will reduce the number of  customers impacted by a single-line outage.

However, the power company failed to meet a July deadline for rollout of a new $30 million computer system to track and report utility repair work during storms, forgoing a $1 million LIPA incentive and earning criticism from a New York State Department of Public Service official, who called not having the system in place “unacceptable.” PSEG officials have said the system, now running concurrently with an older system that was considered inadequate after Hurricane Sandy, will begin operating independently in August.

Two construction workers fell off a roof in East Hampton Village on Friday morning.

Village Police Chief Gerard Larsen said they had fallen 15 feet when the "scaffolding shifted" at the construction site at 32 Mill Hill Lane. East Hampton Village Volunteer Ambulance Association received the call at 10:18 a.m.

"The injuries did not appear life-threatening," Chief Larsen said.

One man was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital after a Medevac helicopter landed at the East Hampton Airport. The other man was taken to Southampton Hospital, as there was only one Medevac available at the time.

This was the second major accident at a construction site in the East Hampton Town this week. On Wednesday, two men were airlifted to Stony Brook after they fell 30 to 40 feet off scaffolding into a basement at a Culloden Point property in Montauk. Their injuries were also not believed to be life-threatening.

The shark that was found at an Amagansett ocean beach on Tuesday evening has been officially identified as a great white. It was dissected on Thursday afternoon by the National Marine Fisheries Service with assistance from Stony Brook University faculty, students, and staff at the Southampton Marine Station.

As for why the shark washed ashore, “There was no obvious physical evidence of severe trauma or disease,” said Demian Chapman, a professor at the Stony Brook School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, “but it is important to understand that scientists are rarely able to determine the cause of death of white shark carcasses given our limited knowledge of the species."

The main purpose of the dissection, he said, was "to gather data on this species as opposed to trying to determine why it died."

It is possible that the shark did not wash ashore at all, and was instead dumped on the beach by a fisherman who accidentally hooked it. "As a prohibited species, it is important to note that it is illegal for members of the public to possess white shark carcasses or parts and that any accidentally captured white sharks should always be released alive and in a manner that minimizes stress to the animal." While the species was made infamous by the movie “Jaws,” great white sharks are classified as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, meaning that they are likely to become endangered unless the conditions threatening their survival improve.

Given the limited knowledge about the species, the great white carcass is a valuable find and will be used to provide information for further research.

The scientists determined that the shark was 167 centimeters long (that's about 66 inches) and weighed 30 kilograms (66 pounds). It was a juvenile male, no more than 2 years old.

Samples were taken from the fins, jaws, and muscle tissue, from the vertebral column to be used in age and growth studies, and from the stomach to be used in diet studies. A DNA sample was also taken, and will be used in an ongoing study of white shark genetics at Stony Brook University.

Finally, a reproductive examination was performed. Mr. Chapman said that this examination, "when combined with data from older males will elucidate how male white sharks mature."

"All in all," he said, "The specimen yielded samples and information that will help scientists and the National Marine Fisheries Service better understand and protect white sharks."

For more pictures, click here.

After a dramatic chase through the woods in Wainscott early Monday, a Northport man who refused to surrender to East Hampton Village police despite being Tasered twice was finally brought down by an officer using a flashlight and a baton. Daniel Cavan Rathgaber, 30, was charged with felony driving with a suspended license and two misdemeanors —drunken driving and resisting arrest.

Police stopped a black 2010 Honda Accord that was swerving out of its lane as it headed west on Montauk Highway near Daniel’s Hole Road. As Officer Steven Niggles approached, Mr. Rathgaber jumped out of the car and ran into the woods. Police said he kept running even as the officer shouted several times, "Police, stop!" The officer pursued Mr. Rathgaber and when close enough fired his Taser. It briefly stopped him, but then he got up and continued to flee.

Officer Eben Ball then joined the chase through the dark woods, ordering Mr. Rathgaber to stop before firing his Taser. Mr. Rathgaber then reportedly charged the officer. As the two wrestled, Officer Ball pulled out his baton and struck Mr. Rathgaber in the left leg several times.

Finally the officer was able to shove him to the ground and "strike him in the back of the head with his flashlight," the police report said. After he was arrested, Mr. Rathgaber told the two officers that "he had left Montauk, and drank six beers there. The defendant also stated that he had a prior D.U.I. charge, and that is why he ran."

A number of cuts on Mr. Rathgaber's face and body were still visible during his arraignment later that day. He refused all blood alcohol tests and was taken to Southampton Hospital for treatment before being released back to police.

Represented in East Hampton Town Justice Court by Brian Francese of the Legal Aid Society, Mr. Rathgaber told Justice Steven Tekulsky that he commutes to Montauk from Northport on weekends to work at Ruschmeyer's restaurant.

He stood in front of the justice wrapped in a white blanket, wearing blue hospital pajamas and slippers.

"Besides the serious nature of the charges, this defendant doesn't seem to obey an order of the court," Justice Tekulsky said to Mr. Francese as they discussed a bail amount, referring to the fact that Mr. Rathgaber's license had been suspended after he recently pleaded guilty, following a plea deal, to a charge of driving with ability impaired by alcohol, a violation. Justice Tekulsky said the district attorney's office had asked that bail be set at $10,000.

"He was operating a motor vehicle while his privileges were revoked,” Justice Tekulsky said. “The charges themselves indicate that the defendant fled and continued to flee, even when told to halt."

He pointed out Mr. Rathgaber's tenuous ties to the community and set bail at $8,500. Mr. Rathgaber was given several hours Monday to raise bail at police headquarters on Cedar Street. Unable to do so, he was taken to the county jail in Riverside. He will be returned to court on Thursday.

An eastbound Long Island Rail Road train crashed into an abandoned sport utility vehicle early Tuesday morning in Montauk. No injuries were reported.

The Toyota S.U.V. had become stuck at the end of a dirt road in Hither Hills State Park, according to Montauk Fire Department Chief Joe Lenahan. The driver had left to seek help before the train arrived at about 4 a.m. It was unclear whether there had been anyone else with the driver at the time.

The vehicle was struck by a L.I.R.R. train that left Jamaica at 1:11 a.m., according to Salvatore Arena, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. "Occupants had apparently and wisely abandoned the car after it got stuck at crossing," Mr. Salvatore wrote in an email.

The fire department responded with its heavy rescue truck, two brush trucks, and a utility truck, Chief Lenahan said. He was "uncertain of the collateral damage until on scene," he said. Two fire chiefs and other personnel reached the site from service roads, he said.

Chief Lenahan said the department knew where to respond thanks to number signs it installed along the tracks and on the service road for such incidents. "The L.I.R.R. can call 911 with a number and we can locate it on maps and G.P.S. It's a great, but simple, system that works," he said.

It took several hours to separate the wrecked Toyota from train engine, Mr. Salvatore said. It resumed its trip at 6:30 a.m. For the nine passengers aboard the train, it was a two-and-a-half hour delay, he said.

The first train departing Montauk Tuesday morning was canceled due to the accident. Trains are now running as scheduled.

The M.T.A. police are handling the accident investigation, according to East Hampton Town police.

After detecting heightened levels of blue-green algae during routine testing of Georgica Pond, the East Hampton Town Trustees agreed Thursday evening to temporarily prohibit shellfishing or fishing in the pond and have advised those who use the pond to take precautions when doing so.

"While the toxins at this site are at low levels, preventative measures for all users of the pond should include not swimming or wading near blooms of surface scum, not drinking the water, keeping children and pets away from blooms and scum, [and] rinsing with clean water if exposed," the trustees wrote in a letter to the Georgica Pond Homeowners Association, baymen, and the general public.

Last year, the trustees began testing for water quality and toxic algal blooms in Georgica and other town water bodies. "The results in 2013 had no high levels of toxicity" in Georgica, the trustees wrote Thursday. "However, as of today, July 24, 2014, one sample from Eel Cove tested slightly above the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation level for 'blue-green' algae."

In D.E.C. testing this year, blue-green algae blooms have also been found in Big Reed Pond in Montauk and Lake Agawam and Wickapogue Pond in Southampton, the latter of which had a high level of toxins at the last D.E.C. sampling on July 15, according to the agency's website.

Blue-green algae is the common name for cyanobacteria, which "are naturally present in lakes and streams in low numbers," according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, but can form harmful algal blooms under the right conditions, typically in "nutrient-rich waters" during "hot, calm weather." They produce "toxins that can be harmful to people and animals," the D.E.C. says. Cyanobacteria can "discolor the water or produce floating rafts or scums on the surface of the water," according to the website for the New York State Department of Health.

While there is no data confirming that shellfish, such as crabs, or other marine species in the pond would be affected by the bloom or that consuming that shellfish or fish would be unsafe, the trustees "determined it is in the best interest of the public" to close the pond to shellfishing and fishing until at least Aug. 12.

"Rest assured," the trustees' letter says, "mitigation and/or removal practices are and will continue to be discussed by the board of trustees. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix for the toxic or macro algae blooms. However, although no direct link has been defined yet, we encourage all home and property owners surrounding the pond to look at their own upland practices (i.e. aging septic systems, fertilizer use, lack of natural shoreline vegetation) to reduce the risk and potential for blooms in the future."

The landlord of a summer rental in Springs pleaded guilty Thursday to 14 felony charges stemming from his use of surveillance cameras to spy on his tenants.

Donald J. Torr, 70, of Celebration, Fla., placed 15 cameras around the his rental property on Winterberry Lane, according to Daniel Justus Solinsky of Salenger, Sack, Kimmel, and Bavaro, an attorney for one of the families victimized by Mr. Torr. Mr. Solinsky spoke last year after Mr. Torr was indicted by a grand jury in Riverside. The family is suing Mr. Torr, as is another family that he admitted to spying on.

Mr. Torr’s wife, Astrid Torr, has been named as a co-defendant in the civil suits, which are in federal court, but was not charged with any crimes by Suffolk County. East Hampton Town police, along with Suffolk County detectives, began investigating the house in the summer of 2012 after receiving reports from one of the two families now suing Mr. Torr that they had discovered a hidden surveillance camera. The house was rented out during summer seasons for $6,500 a week.

In addition to 14 counts of unlawful surveillance in the second degree, a felony charge, Mr. Torr also pleaded guilty Thursday to 9 counts of misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child. The unlawful surveillance charge is brought when police believe that a defendant has taped or viewed private acts of an intimate nature with no legitimate purpose for doing so. The renters included nine children, leading to the nine misdemeanor charges.

Mr. Torr, formerly of Montauk, has appeared 17 times in Supreme Court Justice Barbara Kahn’s courtroom. Her court handles cases involving East End felony sex crimes. Mr. Torr has undergone court-ordered psychiatric examinations, but the results of those examinations have not been released.

He is the former owner of the Crow’s Nest in Montauk. During a recess at a recent court appearance, he spoke nostalgically of fishing off Duryea’s dock when he was young, using scrap lobster pieces given to him by workers at the dock as bait. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 18.

 A 17-year-old was helicoptered to Stony Brook University Hospital Sunday evening after falling off a Jet Ski in the waters of North Haven Bay.

“There were three people on the same Jet Ski,” Albert Tuzzolo, Southampton Town’s Senior Bay Constable said Tuesday. “The passenger on the rear,” Penelope Heller, “fell off. The other two on the Jet Ski recovered her,” he said, and brought her to shore. There, she was aided by Sag Harbor Ambulance personnel and Southampton Town police and eventually flown to the hospital for treatment. She has since been released.

Two people reportedly fell three stories into a basement when scaffolding collapsed at a construction site in Montauk on Wednesday afternoon.

Both people were flown to Stony Brook University Hospital.

The accident was reported at 11 Wills Point Road in Culloden Point at 2:51 p.m. 

One Medevac helicopter, based in Westhampton, landed at the nearby Montauk firehouse on Flamingo Road. The second helicopter, which flew from Islip, was meeting a Montauk ambulance at the East Hampton Airport. 

The Montauk Fire Department's heavy rescue squad was called to help remove the patients from the basement. The height of the fall could not immediately be confirmed.