A disturbance at a local restaurant, which began on Friday night at 10:30, ended at midnight, after police roused a man asleep in a stolen car in his Springs driveway. Police said they later determined that he was drunk.
Nyandu Musonda, 32, had been causing a disturbance at Cittanuova in East Hampton Village, and a manager asked him multiple times to leave. The manager finally called village police, who walked Mr. Musonda out onto Newtown Lane and told him to leave the area. He complied.
An hour and a half later, police responded to a report of a stolen 2004 Volvo from a nearby parking lot. Its 63-year-old owner, who told them he’d been in his office working until midnight, found the car missing when he left. He let the police know he had left it unlocked, with the keys inside.
The same officers who had responded to the disturbance at Cittanuova had taken Mr. Musonda’s address, and thought to check his house. They found the Volvo in his driveway, engine running and Mr. Musonda asleep behind the wheel. With the help of town police officers, they removed him from the car.
Mr. Musonda was allegedly disoriented and unsteady on his feet. His eyes were glassy, police noted, and he smelled strongly of alcohol. Asked if he’d had anything to drink that night, he answered yes. Police conducted standard field sobriety tests, on which he performed poorly, but he refused to take a breathalyzer test.
Charged with grand larceny, driving while intoxicated, unauthorized use of a vehicle, criminal possession of stolen property, and driving without a license, he was transported to village police headquarters to spend the remainder of the night, and was arraigned on Saturday morning. He is due back at East Hampton Town Justice Court on March 17.
Marco Lojaillescas, 34, of East Hampton, was southbound on Route 114 near Swamp Road on Feb. 5 when he crossed the double lines ahead of oncoming traffic and swerved off the road. The car crashed into a tree and the driver suffered a fractured leg.
Mr. Lojaillescas told police that he’d hit a patch of ice and lost control of his S.U.V. However, three separate witnesses said otherwise: All reported seeing him speeding before he hit a curve in the road and lost control of the vehicle.
The officer who spoke with the driver noticed the smell of alcohol on his breath and had him perform sobriety tests, which he reportedly failed. He was charged with misdemeanor D.W.I. and taken by ambulance to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital.
He is due back in Justice Court on March 17. The car was towed by Hammer Towing.
On the night of Jan. 14, Thomas Leano of Wyandanch, 48, was eastbound in Amagansett in a 2009 Nissan when a town officer saw the car swerving back and forth across the center lines. The driver was pulled over and, according to the report, failed the roadside sobriety tests. Mr. Leano was found to have a previous conviction for drunken driving, in 2018, which raised the charge to a felony offense.
Back at town police headquarters in Wainscott, Mr. Leano refused to take a breath test. He was held overnight for a court appearance the next morning, and was indicted on Feb. 10.
