Son Freed After Mom Posts High Bail on Credit Card

A Springs man was charged with drunken driving early Friday morning, almost two years to the day since his last arrest on the charge. Alex M. Naranjo, 29, now faces two felony counts.

East Hampton Town police said they spotted his 2004 Mitsubishi on Hand’s Creek Road, East Hampton, swerving across lane lines. He was put in handcuffs after failing roadside sobriety tests and taken to headquarters in Wainscott, where a breath test reportedly registered a blood-alcohol level of .15 of 1 percent.

His arrest on Main Street in Amagansett in May 2014, his first for driving while intoxicated, involved an accident in which two other vehicles were damaged. Mr. Naranjo pleaded guilty as charged in October of that year. That conviction raised Friday’s charge to the felony level.

Seated in East Hampton Town Justice Court for his arraignment were his sister and his mother, who sobbed off and on as she waited for him to be brought in. With his Legal Aid lawyer, Brian Francese, by his side, Mr. Naranjo was told that the District Attorney’s office was requesting bail of $7,500, 15 times the amount he posted in 2014. Mr. Francese argued for a much lower amount, saying that the defendant had never failed to appear in court in the earlier case.

Justice Steven Tekulsky set bail at $5,000, and Mr. Naranjo was told to be back in court on May 11, yesterday, when Justice Lisa R. Rana would be on the bench. “She had the pleasure of your company for your last D.W.I. conviction,” he said. “She gave you a conditional discharge. Clearly, you have not taken advantage of that.” Under a conditional discharge, probation is avoided.

Justice Tekulsky asked the defendant if he would be posting bail. Mr. Naranjo turned to look at his mother, who asked the court whether she could use a credit card. At the court clerk’s window her card was charged $5,000 plus a 3 percent nonrefundable surcharge, and her son was freed. His case will be moved to county court if and when the D.A. obtains a grand jury indictment on the felony charges.

A Long Beach woman was arrested near midnight Friday on a misdemeanor charge of D.W.I. Allison B. Wallace, 27, was in Montauk for the weekend, a friend of hers said before Saturday morning’s arraignment. The women had just left the Gig Shack and were headed to their hotel, when, according to the police report, Ms. Wallace’s 2015 Acura made a wide turn onto South Edison Street. The car traveled only a few hundred feet before an officer pulled it over.

The breath test at headquarters produced a reading of .20, high enough to trigger a raised charge of aggravated drunken driving. Justice Rana released the woman, who had a lawyer, a relative, by her side, without requiring bail, noting that she had no criminal record.

Finally, a state trooper stopped Fredy Lucero Juarez, 19, of East Hampton on Sunrise Highway May 2, saying he was speeding. He failed the field test, the trooper said, before being charged with drunken driving, and spent several hours at state police headquarters in Riverside before being released. He was to have been arraigned yesterday in Southampton Town Justice Court.