High-Speed Chase Nabs Ex-Bonac Star

A former star of East Hampton High School’s football team was arrested early last Thursday morning on a number of criminal charges, including two felony drug counts.

Joseph Dowling of Sag Harbor, 22, driving a 2014 Mazda, had led East Hampton Town police on a chase along Route 114, driving “in excess of 100 miles per hour,” according to the report.

The pursuit began on Swamp Road after a police cruiser activated its lights and then its siren to no avail. Police said Mr. Dowling ran a couple of stop signs before turning north on Route 114, with the cruiser on his tail.

Additional cars were called in on the high-speed pursuit, as were the Sag Harbor Village police. At some point the fleeing man executed a U-turn and headed south, still on the main road between Sag Harbor and East Hampton.

Police said he was now driving in the middle of the road, and narrowly missed an oncoming car that veered onto the shoulder to avoid a crash.

He was finally pulled over near Swamp Road. Sag Harbor police said that when they arrived, Mr. Dowling was running away into the woods. He was soon brought down, but refused to be handcuffed and had to be subdued.

Police then began searching him, and the Mazda. They allegedly found a small wax envelope containing heroin, and two small glassine envelopes of cocaine. On the passenger seat, allegedly, were two larger glassine envelopes of cocaine. Police also reported finding nine glassine envelopes and a gram scale, items normally associated with street drug sales, as well as a “spring-assisted” gravity knife in the center console.

Finally, under the passenger seat, they found a Mason jar containing marijuana.

“Yeah, that’s my weed, but it’s not for sale. It’s for my personal use,” Mr. Dowling is said to have told the officers.

Back at Wainscott headquarters, he explained his flight: “I just wanted to go home. I just didn’t want to get in trouble.”

He faces two felony charges — criminal possession of narcotics and criminal possession of a controlled substance with an intent to sell — as well as five misdemeanors, one violation for possession of marijuana, and at least seven traffic violations.

Mr. Dowling, whose playing weight in high school was listed at 245 pounds, played both sides of the line for the 2009 East Hampton-Pierson-Bridgehampton Bonackers, who made the playoffs for the first time since 2003. He was named all-county in his junior and senior years. He was a student at Pierson High School in Sag Harbor at the time.

He then attended Dean College, a junior college in New England with a respected football program. Last year he attended Pace University, according to the university’s website, where he was a starting offensive lineman.

However, he had academic troubles. In East Hampton Town Justice Court last Thursday afternoon he told Justice Steven Tekulsky he was now taking classes at Suffolk County Community College, working to get his grades high enough to be able to attend a major university on a football scholarship.

Justice Tekulsky set bail at $2,500, which was later posted at police headquarters.