D.W.I. New Year’s Day No Holiday

An East Hampton man charged on New Year’s Day with drunken driving — the third time in the past 10 years — is facing three felony counts.

At 8 that morning, East Hampton Town police said they found Franklin A. Alvarez-Quito, 32, sound asleep in the driver’s seat of a 2006 Infiniti, seat belt on and engine running, with the car in park by the side of Middle Highway in East Hampton. After he awoke, he reportedly told police, “I drank a lot.” 

At headquarters, a breath test produced a reading of .20, well over the legal limit and high enough to trigger an aggravated charge of driving while intoxicated.

When Mr. Alvarez-Quito was first arrested, in Southampton in 2006, the charge of misdemeanor D.W.I. was reduced to D.W.A.I., driving with ability impaired, a violation. He was next charged in 2014 in East Hampton, and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor that time. His license was suspended. Because the conviction was alcohol-related, the new unlicensed-driving charge automatically became a felony; similarly, the prior D.W.I. conviction raised the level of the new charges. 

He spent the rest of New Year’s Day and night in a holding cell at town police headquarters in Wainscott. 

“I want to apologize,” he said to East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky during his arraignment. Justice Tekulsky had cautioned him not to say anything related to the case, since he was proceeding without a lawyer at his side. The Legal Aid Society provides lawyers for weekday arraignments here, but not on weekends.

“I want to be a different person. I want to straighten out my life,” the defendant told the court. 

“At the moment, you have not shown that you want to change your life,” Justice Tekulsky responded, as he looked at the man’s record. The district attorney’s office had requested that bail be set at $10,000, he told Mr. Alvarez-Quito, and he was inclined to agree. 

Three friends or relatives of the defendant were seated in the courtroom. “Where are we going to get the money?” a woman whispered.

He was bailed out later that day.

Another New Year’s Day arrest happened on Race Lane in East Hampton Village, where police stopped a 2005 Nissan Altima driven by Juan-Jesus Godinez-Martinez, 37, to check his inspection sticker, which, they said, appeared to have expired. The sticker turned out to be a forgery, according to police.

Mr. Godinez-Martinez, charged with felony possession of a forged instrument, was arraigned before Justice Tekulsky the next day, Saturday. He faces additional counts of unlicensed driving and driving an uninspected vehicle, both violations.

When Justice Tekulsky told him that the district attorney’s office had asked for $5,000 bail, Mr. Godinez-Martinez let out an audible sigh and bowed his head. 

Justice Tekulsky then observed that the defendant had “some roots in the community” and that this appeared to be his first brush with the law. He set bail at $1,000, which was posted. 

Another man facing a felony charge after a weekend arrest is Richard A. Quimby, 55, of Montauk, who allegedly violated a protective order held by his brother, William Quimby. Police said the defendant was highly intoxicated when he entered his brother’s room while he was watching a New Year’s Day football game, grabbed him, and scratched his face.

Because of the order of protection, the injury inflicted on William Quimby triggered a felony-level charge of contempt of court.

Richard Quimby resisted an officer’s attempt to handcuff him, police said, leading to an additional misdemeanor charge.

He was arraigned on Sunday. Because he has four prior felony convictions, Justice Tekulsky told him, a local court was not able under state law to set bail. 

Mr. Quimby was taken to the county jail in Riverside. He will be released tomorrow if there is no grand jury indictment against him by then.