A Florida resident faces two felony drunken-driving charges after Sag Harbor Village police, responding to a welfare check, found him lying on a sidewalk early on the morning of Aug. 20.
Billy J. Salazar, 51, of Coral Springs, Fla., was found on Bay Street next to his pickup truck, which was stopped by the side of the road with the driver’s-side door open. Mr. Salazar told officers he’d pulled over “because sometimes you just need to stop, it’s a normal thing.” He was found to have injured his head in falling to the ground while trying to exit the truck.
Asked if he’d had any drinks that night, he responded, “Absolutely,” and performed poorly, police said, on a series of roadside sobriety tests. He was taken by ambulance to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital for evaluation of the head injury, and consented to a pre-screen breath test while in the ambulance and a blood test at the hospital.
Two alcohol-related charges were raised to the felony level because of a previous conviction for driving while intoxicated in 2016. Mr. Salazar was also charged with operating a vehicle without a required breath-testing device, a misdemeanor.
The truck was impounded and towed to the police impound yard. The driver was released from the hospital with a ticket to appear in Sag Harbor Village Justice Court on Sept. 12.
An East Hampton man was also charged with felony D.W.I. last week, after crashing into a van parked by the side of the road.
Just before midnight on Aug. 19, according to town police, Wilson Valladoid Minchala, 45, was driving a black Jeep down Bristol Street, off Oakview Highway, when he left his lane of travel and collided with the driver’s side of a Honda van, propelling the van into two other parked vehicles. Police, after observing “known indicators of intoxication,” had him perform field sobriety tests, which he reportedly failed. He was then taken to the Stony Brook East Hampton Emergency Room for treatment of minor bleeding to his head.
Mr. Valladoid Minchala was charged with drunken driving, a felony offense due to a previous conviction in 2022. He was arraigned in Town Justice Court later that morning before Justice Steven Tekulsky, who released him on his own recognizance with a ticket to return to court at a later date.
The Jeep was towed to the police impound yard.
