E.H.H.S. Students Charged

Two East Hampton High School students were arrested last Thursday on felony charges involving the theft of dirt bikes. For one of them, it was the second such arrest in the span of a single week.

On Nov. 4, toward the end of the school day, Reginald Williams, a 17-year-old junior, allegedly pulled a fire alarm switch in a school hallway. He was arrested after police viewed a video of the incident. Turning in a false alarm involving a school is considered a felony.

The youth was arraigned before East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky the next morning. Because of the seriousness of the charge, he was not eligible to have the courtroom cleared or his file sealed. He was released without bail.

Five days later he was arrested again, charged this time with two more felonies, grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. According to town police, Mr. Williams, in company with a 16-year-old, stole a 2011 Kowasaki dirt bike from behind a house on Neck Path in Springs, the home of a 16-year-old girl he knows. He later told police he had visited the girl the day before and they had gone riding. 

After making off with the unsecured bike, the two boys took it for a joy ride. Mr. Williams was charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.

The 16-year-old, according to police, had stolen a different dirt bike a day or two before, from behind a Woodbine Drive house in Springs where another East Hampton High student lives. “I saw the shed and I didn’t want to walk home, so I went in to see if anything was in it.” He found, police said, a Yamaha Raptor dirt bike, which he took. He also took a pair of Dior sunglasses and a pair of Diff sunglasses from a parked vehicle, police said. 

It did not take detectives long to visit Mr. Williams. They knocked on his door last Thursday and asked him if he owned a red dirt bike. He was soon under arrest. 

The 16-year-old, a sophomore, was arrested soon after, charged with burglary and grand larceny. Because he has never before been arrested, he was released without bail Friday morning after being arraigned. When the handcuffs were removed he began crying, hugging his brother, who was in the courtroom, tightly.

Justice Tekulsky set bail for Mr. Williams, who has been involved in two other incidents before this and treated as a youthful offender, at $1,000, expressing concern that he appeared to be spiraling out of control. The youth’s mother, who was in the courtroom, was unable to post it immediately, and her son spent the next two days in the county jail in Riverside.

Adam Fine, the East Hampton High School principal, did not return phone calls this week.