Sag Harbor police were busy last week with traffic arrests and a few more serious offenses. Early Saturday morning on Hampton Street, police stopped a 2005 Jaguar driven by Matthew Stefanik, 31, a village resident, for a broken passenger-side headlight and unilluminated license plates, and spotted an open Corona bottle in the center console. Asked if there was anything else in the car they should know about, Mr. Stefanik reportedly answered, "Yes, I have a nugget of weed," and produced a clear plastic bag from the console. A further search, police said, revealed "a small clear jar containing a white stem and three small pieces of a brown substance" confirmed by the driver to be mushrooms, "as well as $1,725 in cash."
Mr. Stefanik was charged with criminal possession of illegal substances, as well as violating the open alcohol container law and lacking proper car lights. He will appear in Sag Harbor Court before Justice Lisa R. Rana on Friday, March 5.
On Saturday night, a report of three young men shouting and drinking outside 55 Main Street in the Harbor led to the arrest of two 19-year-olds, Noah Dark and Joseph Augustine, both from New York City, who, according to police, were found urinating on the front steps of Village Hall. They too will be in court on Friday, March 5.
Traffic arrests in Sag included that of Bryan Gough of Newtown, N.J., who will be in court that same day on a charge of driving with suspended registration.
In East Hampton, town police released a report that Joel Crespo of Springs, 52, had been charged on Jan. 14 with criminal mischief, a felony, after he took a crowbar to a 2020 Toyota Tundra parked on Morrell Street, causing upward of $250 damage to the doors. He was arraigned in Town Justice Court on Feb. 4.
Robin Jimenez of Hampton Bays and Jaime Escalante of Sag Harbor appeared in East Hampton Justice Court yesterday to answer charges of unlicensed driving. George Estrada of East Quogue will be in court on Wednesday on that charge, and Juan Alfonso-Rodriguez of Islip will be there on March 10, on a charge of driving without an Interlock device. Drivers with a history of alcohol-related charges are required to install the device.
