An East Hampton Town Building Department office assistant who had been suspended and a former building inspector who resigned earlier this year were arrested, the attorney for one of them confirmed on Thursday.
Evelyn Calderon, a principal office assistant who had been suspended without pay for 30 days last spring and has since been suspended with pay, was charged with bribe receiving and official misconduct, according to her attorney, Edward Burke Jr. Ryan Benitez, a building inspector who resigned in January, was also arrested. His attorney, Austin Manghan, could not be reached Thursday morning, but Mr. Burke said that Mr. Benitez faces the same charges as his client.
Mr. Burke declined to comment further.
The Suffolk County district attorney has not yet publicly released the details of the alleged crimes. They were both arraigned Thursday pursuant to a surrender at Riverhead's Cromarty Court Complex Criminal Courts Building and were released after their arraignments.
The indictments are confirmation of rumors that surfaced well over a year ago that a large-scale investigation of the department had been ongoing. The department has floundered amid rumors of visits from the D.A.'s office and a severe staffing shortage leading to widespread complaints about delays for building permits.
Through it all, neither the town nor the D.A.'s office would comment, despite plenty of whisperings and commentary from the small and tight-knit community of builders and other real estate professionals.
It all began in September 2024, when Joe Palermo, then the chief building inspector for the town, took his concerns to Councilwoman Cate Rogers, the town board liaison to the department, setting the investigation in motion.
The town played no role in the investigation itself, which was run by the Suffolk County D.A.
For months, there was little indication that anything was afoot, but last April, the town board suspended Ms. Calderon (known only as Employee 1254) for 30 days with pay. She was then suspended without pay. She has not been replaced in her position as principal office assistant. Ms. Calderon had worked for the town since 2004, with a break from 2019 to 2021.
Clouds on the horizon, Mr. Palermo left the department and accepted a job with East Hampton Village, where he has been the chief building inspector since May 1, 2025. His departure led to further struggles at the leaderless department just as it was simultaneously implementing a new software system and a new provision of the town code that requires an updated certificate of occupancy upon a property's sale.
Through the summer, Allison McDougall, an administrative assistant, served as acting principal building inspector, signing off on building permits.
Public-facing office hours were cut to give building inspectors more time to work on a growing backlog of applications.
Then, in July, Justin Winter, a building inspector, resigned. In January, Mr. Benitez, the Spanish-speaking building inspector, resigned. Two weeks later, Brandon Gabbard, another building inspector, was suspended. His resignation was finally accepted by the town board at its March 17 meeting. Mr. Gabbard has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
Mr. Gabbard's resignation marked a nearly full turnover of the department's building inspectors in just the last year.
Dawn Green is the only building inspector who would have been around while the alleged wrongdoing in the department occurred. On Dec. 4, she was promoted to senior building inspector.
This followed the hiring in September of Richard Normoyle as principal building inspector. Weeks later, the town made a big show of hiring new blood in the form of a building inspector, Aaron Arkinson, and two plans examiners, Joseph Berti, and Jacob Sutherland. Mr. Berti and Mr. Sutherland are now building inspectors, and the examination of plans has since been outsourced to three outside firms.
In the meantime, East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen launched a primary challenge to Town Supervisor Kathee-Burke Gonzalez based in part on what he called dysfunction at the department.
With the hope of cutting through a backlog of applications, in early March the town paused implementation of the new C.O. requirements.
This week, the town's website showed nine employees working in the department, including Ms. Calderon, who remained listed as of Monday. In January, Patrick Derenze, the town's public information officer, identified a 15-employee target for the department.
The phone never stops ringing at the department, which has averaged over 250 calls a day this year, or 37 per hour.
In February, Councilman David Lys said the department would soon move to a bigger suite in the office building it currently occupies on Pantigo Place. This week he said he hopes they're relocated by the end of April.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
