Took Car and Away He Ran

On the evening of April 20, according to East Hampton Town police, Raymond K. Berry, 29, took a car belonging to Alison Miller from a driveway at 3 Ninth Street in Springs and drove it through a Gardiner Avenue yard and around a swimming pool before abandoning it in a nearby driveway and running away. 

“The vehicle veered off the roadway, entering the yard of 102 Gardiner Avenue, going around the pool, through a wooden fence, and striking a metal pipe before continuing across Gardiner Avenue, and parking in a driveway on the northbound side of Ninth Street,” police reported.

Mr. Berry, a resident of Leland, N.C., then fled the scene. Police arrived quickly, and found him. When told he was under arrest on misdemeanor charges of unauthorized use of a vehicle and leaving the scene of an accident involving property damage, a violation, he reportedly tried to run away. Police had to wrestle him to the ground, forcing his arms behind his back so he could be handcuffed. A third charge, resisting arrest, was added, along with numerous moving violations. 

Mr. Berry was later released from police headquarters with an appearance ticket. His arraignment is scheduled for June 7 in East Hampton Town Justice Court. The Subaru was badly damaged, and was towed to the police impound yard on Industrial Road in Wainscott.

A Pound Ridge, N.Y., woman, Meredith C. Kocur, was charged on the night of April 27 with five counts of misdemeanor drug possession after being pulled over on Montauk Highway in Wainscott. She had allegedly failed to dim her headlights for an oncoming car, which happened to be a police vehicle. 

The officer thought she smelled marijuana, and asked Ms. Kocur if she had been smoking. “This is my sister’s car,” the driver is said to have answered, adding, “I do smell marijuana.” 

According to the officer, there were three marijuana cigarettes in plain view on the passenger seat. A search of the car then began. Ms. Kocur’s purse was also on the passenger seat, and the officer reported finding a small packet of cocaine inside it. Also in the purse, police said, was a smoking cartridge with marijuana oil.

Directly behind the driver’s seat was a yellow shopping bag, inside which, the officer reported, were eight glass jars, each containing “edible marijuana.” Also in the bag were two containers of “sublingual slips laced with T.H.C.,”  which Wikipedia defines as “the principal psychoactive constituent of cannabis.”

According to Rolling Stone magazine, the slips, when placed under the tongue, “deliver a powerful punch of T.H.C., and can be taken just about anywhere. The strips, which are about the size of a postage stamp and resemble a minty-fresh piece of sandpaper, come in an array of doses and strains.”

Also in the shopping bag, police said, were marijuana buds, weighing a total of 28.3 grams, over the 25-gram number that raises a charge of marijuana possession from a violation to a misdemeanor. 

Ms. Kocur was processed at headquarters and released after putting up $200 bail. She will be arraigned in East Hampton on June 14.