Felony Case in Doubt

A felony assault charge against a Springs man, William B. DePetris, has been reduced to a misdemeanor by the district attorney’s office, and even at that level, his attorney said last Thursday in East Hampton Town Justice Court, the charge is likely to be dropped.

The D.A.’s action was unusual in its timing. Mr. DePetris had been held in the county jail since his arraignment on March 8, unable to post $15,000 bail, and was not scheduled to return to court until today. The case was advanced to Justice Lisa R. Rana’s criminal calendar in order to have the charge reduced.

Carl Irace, Mr. DePetris’ attorney, told Justice Rana that when prosecutors interviewed the alleged victim, Leonides Olivencia, a second time, preparatory to seeking indictment on the felony charge, it became clear he was conflicted. “I don’t expect any more cooperation from the witness,” Mr. Irace told the court.

Sean McDonell, an assistant district attorney, did not dispute that statement, but argued that the real reason for the reduced charge was that Mr. Olivencia’s injury, a broken nose, did not qualify as a felony, which calls for a “serious” injury.

After the charge was reduced, the two attorneys debated the bail amount. Mr. Irace argued that his client, as a native of the East Hampton area, a college student, and a veteran of the war in Iraq, should be released without bail. Mr. McDonell countered that Mr. DePetris still faces two other misdemeanor charges lodged that night, unrelated to Mr. Olivencia.

Justice Rana reset the bail at $1,000, which was posted later that day.

The incident occurred on Amagansett Main Street on March 8 at about 1:30 a.m. Mr. Olivencia told East Hampton Town detectives, who interviewed him in the emergency room of Southampton Hospital, that Mr. DePetris had attacked him on the street without provocation. According to the police report, Mr. DePetris then took off his belt and struck another man with it, shouting “Spanish pussies.” He resisted arrest and had to be subdued with a Taser, police said.

In a telephone interview on March 9, Mr. Olivencia said that Crystal DePetris, whom he knew, was with her brother, William, whom he did not, outside Indian Wells Tavern when William “sucker-punched me.” He had said the same to the police, and later to the district attorney’s office.

According to a source close to the situation, Mr. Olivencia then phoned Crystal DePetris, to give her “a heads-up” about the interview. Later, when prosecutors brought him to their office, he was no longer cooperative.

Mr. Olivencia is no stranger to the criminal justice system. In January 2011 town police charged him with felony burglary; he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of petty larceny and was sentenced to one year in jail.

It was his signed statement to detectives that led to the felony charge and to Mr. DePetris’s 11 days behind bars. Mr. Irace said by phone on Friday that those days should never have been served.

“I think this was a bar fight. I don’t know what happened inside,” he said. “Blood and hysteria and overreaction, maybe by the police, maybe the victim.” Of Mr. Olivencia, he said, “Sometimes, afterwards, people reflect on their own roles. We see it all the time.”

Mr. DePetris’s case is a candidate to be moved to Veterans Court, which is part of the Southampton Town Justice Court system. Mr. Irace does not think that will happen, however. “I think their case is going south. It is falling apart.”