High-Speed Chase on Sunrise

New York State troopers arrested a 21-year-old from Sag Harbor before dawn on Sunday on multiple charges, including misdemeanor drunken driving, after clocking him at 97 miles per hour in a 55 m.p.h. zone. When asked for his driver’s license, the man handed over a learner’s permit.

According to a trooper who spoke about the arrest on Tuesday, two patrol cars were on the eastbound shoulder of Sunrise Highway, east of Exit 63. One officer had just finished writing out a traffic ticket; the other was making sure that passing drivers obeyed a state law requiring that they change lanes away from emergency vehicles parked on the side of the road.

That was when Oscar Reinoso, 21, sped on by, the trooper reported. Both patrol cars pursued him for about two miles before he pulled over.

He was taken to state police headquarters in Riverhead, where his blood-alcohol content registered .18 or higher. A .18 reading triggers a heightened charge of aggravated drunken driving.

Mr. Reinoso will not have to worry about taking his road test for some time to come if found guilty as charged. A speeding ticket of 40 m.p.h. or more over the limit results in 11 points, the highest number of points possible from a single moving violation, and an almost certain suspension or revocation of driving privileges. Coupled with the additional charges, Mr. Reinoso’s ability to drive in New York State could be in jeopardy for a long time.

He will be arraigned in Southampton Town Justice Court on April 6.

A Montauk man who was arrested Sunday evening just east of the hamlet faces a felony charge of driving while intoxicated, having been convicted of the same charge in 2010.

An East Hampton Town police officer stopped Kevin L. Becker’s Ford pickup truck on Montauk Highway between South Fox and Essex Streets after it swerved across the double yellow line. “I know I shouldn’t be driving, I messed up,” he told the officer, according to the report. After failing roadside sobriety tests, he was taken back to headquarters in Wainscott, where his breath test was recorded at .16 of 1 percent, twice the legal level.

Mr. Becker, 26, was arraigned in East Hampton Town Justice Court the next morning. His attorney, Gordon Ryan, asked that be released without bail, pointing out that he was a lifetime resident and a member of the Montauk Fire Department, and that his mother and girlfriend were in the courtroom.

Justice Lisa R. Rana considered the request. “I am so glad that you are standing in front of me alive,” she said. “You’re at the age where you think you are bulletproof. You’re not.” If she freed him without bail, she told the defendant, it would be on the strict understanding that he enter a 28-day in-patient facility. “This is the time to do it, during the winter,” she said.

“Winter is almost over,” Mr. Becker answered.

It was not the answer Justice Rana wanted to hear. “I don’t care if it is winter, spring, summer, or fall,” she told him. “You need to do at least a 28-day program,” which, she explained, could help him in state court should he be indicted on the felony charge. “I pretty much can’t keep this here,” she said. “You’re going into Felony Land.”

Justice Rana then agreed to release Mr. Becker without bail, directing that the court be notified within two weeks which facility he had entered.