Midnight Dust-up at Saloon

A Montauk man needed 10 stitches to close a wound on his forehead after a man from Kingston, N.Y., alledgedly hit him with a beer bottle on Nov. 15 during a midnight altercation at Liar’s Saloon in Montauk. 

Dana E. Soechting, 42, told East Hampton Town police that he had struck David Tuma, 44, after the East End man made offensive remarks to his friends. Mr. Tuma denied it, saying he did not know what provoked the attack. Mr. Soechting was arrested on a felony charge of assault.

The two men gave conflicting accounts about events leading to the incident. Mr. Tuma said he had first seen Mr. Soechting, an employee of an UpIsland roofing company, a few days before at the Montauk Marine Basin, where he and several Latino men were doing a job. “Tonight around 9 p.m., I went to Liar’s, alone,” Mr. Tuma told police. Mr. Soechting and the same men, who were staying at a nearby motel until their roofing job was finished, were there as well, he said. 

“We were all having a great time,” Mr. Tuma told police. Then, “something must have been said on the deck outside to make someone mad.” The next thing he knew, he said, Mr. Soechting had struck him with the bottle.

“He was making racist comments to my friends,” Mr. Soechting told police. “We told him to leave, and he grabbed me, so I hit him once. I was the only one to punch him, even though everyone else wanted to.” 

East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky set bail of $2,500 in the morning, which was posted, and issued an order of protection for Mr. Tuma. Mr. Soechting is due back in court on Dec. 8.

East Hampton Village police arrested a woman last Thursday morning on a felony charge of possession of a forged government instrument, namely a Social Security card, after noticing her 2001 Toyota had a flat tire and stopping it on Route 114 just past Gingerbread Lane. 

Martha Leopolina Quizhpe-Arias of East Hampton, 32, said she did not have a driver’s license. After charging her with unlicensed driving, the officer looked through the car and found the fake card, made out to “Martha Quizhpe.” 

At Cedar Street headquarters, the woman told police she had “purchased the fake Social Security card four years ago in Jackson Heights. When you are walking around Queens, there are people shouting, ‘Social Security card. Social Security card.’ ” She said she paid $100 for the card, and could not identify the man she bought it from.

Arraigned that afternoon, she was released after Justice Tekulsky warned her that should she be arrested for forgery unlicensed driving again before the current charge is adjudicated, and convicted, “You will go to jail.” Her husband posted her $500 bail.

It is a standard warning from Justice Tekulsky, and it is not an idle threat, as Dylan Eckardt of Montauk learned last Thursday. Mr. Eckardt was in court with his lawyer, Trevor Darrell, who told Justice Tekulsky that his client, who was facing misdemeanor charges of driving while high on drugs and without a license, had agreed with the district attorney’s office to plead guilty to reduced charges and to do 100 hours of community service.

“I’m not so sure I’m going to do that. I want to see how many times this gentleman has been driving without a license,” Justice Tekulsky said. If there were multiple priors, he said, “He will go to jail.” 

Mr. Eckardt took a seat in the courtroom while the court clerk’s office researched his record. Research done, he was called back before the bench. They had come up with one recent unlicensed-driving conviction. 

“His record is less than stellar,” Justice Tekulsky said, but he agreed to the reduced sentence. “This is his last time before me, anyway, his last bite of the apple.”