N.Y.C. Fireman Is Charged

East Hampton Town police have charged a New York City fireman with two counts of aggravated harassment, a misdemeanor, after a series of incidents in late May and early June.

Steven Akkala, 40, has a house on North Shore Road in Montauk. Also on North Shore Road is J and P Pools, where Oraine Lysaith is employed. According to the police, in late May, Mr. Akkala threw rocks at Mr. Lysaith as Mr. Lysaith  walked by his house. Mr. Lysaith told police that Mr. Akkala shouted racial epithets at him while throwing the rocks, yelling at him to “go home.”

Mr. Lysaith, who is black, told police that he ignored the incident because the rocks never struck him. It happened a couple of times, he said, always at the end of his workday, about 5:30 in the afternoon.

On May 27 or 28, Mr. Lysaith said, the situation escalated. “I was walking eastbound,” he told police. Driving toward him, he said, was Mr. Akkala, in a red Jeep Wrangler. “The man swerved the vehicle towards me, and I thought he might hit me or run me over. . . . He turned around and drove past me a second time.”

On May 29, Mr. Lysaith, walking with two fellow workers, was again confronted by Mr. Akkala in his Jeep, he told police. This time, he said, Mr. Akkala, who is white, made three passes at the trio, swerving each time he passed them.

On June 2, after detectives investigated, they asked Mr. Lysaith to go to the Montauk police station, where, viewing photographs of various men, he singled out the one of Mr. Akkala. A warrant was issued on June 22, and Mr. Akkala was arrested on the morning of July 1.

In court that morning, Brian Francese, a Legal Aid Society lawyer representing Mr. Akkala, told East Hampton Town Justice Lisa R. Rana that his client was a respected member of the community and a lifelong resident, a graduate of East Hampton High School. He entered a not guilty plea for the defendant, who was released without bail but with a future date in court. Mr. Akkala was ordered to stay away from Mr. Lysaith at all times.

According to court records, David Evans, an investigator for the New York City Fire Department’s Bureau of Investigations and Trials, has requested a copy of the court file, which did not shed light on whatever may have led up to the alleged harassment.