Say Taxi Driver Was Drunk

The owner of one of the larger taxi companies in Montauk, Exclusive Taxi, was arrested the night of Sept. 6 on aggravated drunken driving charges after the cab he was operating, according to  police, struck another car on Montauk Highway on Napeague, then sped off.

Amaurys Delossantos of Amagansett, 40, was headed west at the time. Approaching the former Cyril’s Fish House, police said, he swerved into the eastbound lane in an attempt to pass a 2016 Dodge, but struck the Dodge on its driver’s side. According to the police report, the Dodge, a rented Suburban driven by Matthew Chua, pulled over but Mr. Delossantos kept going, finally stopping near the intersection with Napeague Meadow Road.

“I stopped here to check out the damage,” he reportedly told the arresting officer. “I know I was speeding. I was going home. My wife called.”

Mr. Chua and one of his six passengers complained of pain but declined a trip to the hospital. Police impounded the taxi. Back at headquarters, police said, Mr. Delossantos’s breath test produced a reading of .21, high enough to trigger an elevated misdemeanor charge of aggravated driving while intoxicated.

That the charge was a misdemeanor and not a felony was a matter of timing. “He also has another D.W.I. he pleaded guilty to in 2006. You’re just a few months [short] of this being a felony,” East Hampton Town Justice Lisa R. Rana told the defendant at his arraignment the next morning. A D.W.I. charge becomes a felony if there is a prior conviction within the preceding 10 years.

Rudy Migliore Jr., an assistant district attorney, asked that bail be set at $2,000. Justice Rana upped that amount to $5,000, and told Mr. Delossantos that his class E driver’s license was suspended. “If I find out that you are driving, you are going to face a very serious situation,” she warned. Mr. Delossantos’s wife posted his bail at the courthouse.

Besides his legal troubles, the arrest may jeopardize Mr. Delossantos’s ability to operate a taxi business in East Hampton Town. According to Michael Sendlenski, lead attorney for the town, police will refer the case to the town’s taxi licensing review board. “People who are alleged to have committed driving while intoxicated are not welcome to be operators, especially when they do it behind the wheel of one of their vehicles,” Mr. Sendlenski said.

The review board is currently considering revoking the operating license of a Springs man, Jaime Uzhcha, 30, who recently pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, a violation. He was originally charged with a felony, possession of a forged government instrument, after police alleged that he had removed a town taxi sticker from one car he owns and affixed it to another, not licensed by the town.

An East Hampton woman who spent five days in jail after her arrest early Sept. 7 is facing felony drunken-driving charges and a possible grand jury indictment. Police stopped Alba L. Galvis’s 2006 Nissan Maxima after it swerved across lane lines on Montauk Highway, they said, and arrested her after she failed roadside sobriety tests. Her breath test at headquarters reportedly produced a reading of .15.

Like Mr. Delossantos, Ms. Galvis, 51, has a prior D.W.I. conviction, but in her case it falls within the past 10 years, in 2009, making the new charge a felony. “This is a felony charge, and she has only been here for two years,” Justice Rana said during her arraignment. “She also has a warrant history, and one prior felony conviction.” Bail was set at $10,000, an amount Ms. Galvis could not meet.

On Monday, because she had not been indicted within 120 hours of her arrest, she was released, as required by state law. She is due back in court today.

Also facing a felony charge of drunken driving is James Signorelli of Springs, who was arrested by Sag Harbor police a little before midnight Saturday. According to police, Mr. Signorelli, who was convicted of a misdemeanor drunken driving charge last year in the Bronx, was driving a 2002 Buick south on Hampton Street, swerving into the oncoming lane, then off onto the shoulder, just missing a parked car, when they pulled him over. After being taken to headquarters, he called Edward Burke Jr., a lawyer, who, according to the report, advised him against taking the breath test. Justice Rana, who also sits in the Sag Harbor courthouse, revoked his license the next morning and set bail at $1,000, which was posted.

East Hampton Town police arrested Christina M. Boehm of Wainscott on Monday afternoon after stopping her 2006 Audi on Montauk Highway near her house. Ms. Boehm’s Breathalyzer test produced a reading of .12. Afterward, she too retained Mr. Burke, who arranged for her to return to court today so that he can process her application for a hardship license, which will allow her to drive to and from work. With no prior record, and ties to the community, she was released without bail, but with a date on the Justice Court calendar.