A tree ultimately stopped Sophie Laffont's Mercedes on Friday, after it struck a fire hydrant on the side of Accabonac Road in East Hampton at about 8:25 p.m. With the fallen tree now on top of the vehicle, Ms. Laffont, a 48-year-old Manhattan resident, told a police officer that she had lost control of her car while trying to turn left from Abraham's Path. She was not hurt in the crash.
The smell of alcohol on Ms. Laffont's breath and signs of intoxication led the officer to suspect that drinking had been a factor. She was charged with driving while intoxicated, a first offense, and was released from custody with a date to appear in East Hampton Town Justice Court.
A car heading the wrong way on a one-way street drew the attention of a Sag Harbor Village officer last week, and ended in a misdemeanor arrest for the driver, Madeline Sullivan, a village resident. Ms. Sullivan, 32, had been eastbound on westbound-only Clinton Street before she was pulled over on Jermain Avenue. A check of her license showed it to have been suspended more than seven years ago, in March 2013, for failure to answer a traffic summons in Ulster County, police said. She is expected in Sag Harbor Justice Court tomorrow to respond to this new charge.
In East Hampton Village, police arrested Brian Luckey of Southampton on several motor vehicle law charges after pulling him over for rolling through a stop sign on Further Lane. A check revealed that Mr. Luckey not only did not have a valid driver's license, but that his vehicle did not have insurance. Police said that Mr. Luckey's license had been suspended twice; in September 2020 in connection with a drunken-driving arrest, and again in August for not having insurance. He is due in town court on Oct. 27.
East Hampton Town police had quite the run of unlicensed-driver arrests recently. Sebastian Staeckler, 23, of Wading River was charged on Sept. 30 with aggravated unlicensed operation in the third degree, a misdemeanor, during a traffic stop on Old Montauk Highway in Montauk.
Peter D. Bove backed a Pink Tuna taxi van into a Lexus parked at Sole East Hotel on Second House Road in Montauk on Sept. 29, while the Lexus's owner, a Melville resident, watched. Mr. Bove, 64, then drove off, later telling a police officer that he'd believed there had been no damage to either vehicle. That may or may not have been the case, but police said that Mr. Bove's driving privileges had been suspended, which they learned after catching up with the taxi near Carl Fisher Plaza. He was released with a date in court after being processed on a misdemeanor charge.
Similarly charged by town police in Montauk was Juan Aquino Mendoza, 30, of Farmingville, who was stopped on Montauk Highway near Second House Road on Sept. 27. The next day, police pulled over Alberto Gallego Beserril of Springs on Montauk Highway in East Hampton and charged him with driving with a suspended registration.
Finally, on the last day of September, Victor Alvarez Carabajo of Springs, 40, was arrested on Stephen Hand's Path in East Hampton on the same charge.