This Time, It Is a Felony

A 25-year-old Springs man who has been in trouble with the law several times since he turned 18 was arrested again last week, this time on a felony charge.



Kody J. Knudsen was said by East Hampton Town police to have been driving a 2004 Chevrolet without its owner’s permission when he was pulled over on Three Mile Harbor Road in Springs a little after midnight last Thursday. According to police, Mr. Knudsen drove the car out of the parking lot at Wolfie’s Tavern on Fort Pond Boulevard.



Normally, unauthorized use of a vehicle is a misdemeanor, but because Mr. Knudsen has twice been convicted of the same crime, at the ages of 19 and 20, the charge was automatically elevated.



He was charged additionally with unlicensed driving, a misdemeanor. According to the arrest report, his driver’s license was revoked when he was 18 because of a drunken-driving conviction.



Last year Mr. Knudsen was arrested twice in one week, first for punching another man. He pleaded guilty to that charge, a simple violation, in January. The other charge, criminal mischief, for allegedly destroying property belonging to his mother, was dropped.



When he was arraigned last year on the criminal mischief charge, a felony, East Hampton Town Justice Lisa R. Rana told him, “You’ve run out of chances.” That, apparently, was Justice Steven Tekulsky’s thinking as well when he set bail Saturday morning at $1,000. Unable to post bail, Mr. Knudsen was remanded to the county jail in Yaphank. He is scheduled to be released today barring a grand jury indictment.



Roads in both East Hampton Town and Village saw no drunken-driving arrests over the past week. In eastern Southampton Town, there was one, on Noyac Road near Bayview Drive Sunday morning. Police charged Jose J. Reyes of Brooklyn, 25, after he crashed his car into a tree, and also charged him with unlicensed driving. Information as to bail was not available.