A man facing a misdemeanor drunken driving charge appears to have dug himself a lot deeper into a legal hole on July 10.
Sebastian Arturo Sarmiento, 35, of East Chatham, N.Y., was being held in a cell after police arrested him earlier that morning on Montauk Highway near Camp Hero Road in Montauk for speeding. His breath smelled of alcohol, they said, and his speech was slurred. He failed roadside sobriety tests, they said, but when they told him to exit his Land Rover for a sobriety test, he rolled up the driver’s-side window.
An officer had to break the passenger-side window to gain entrance into the car to arrest him, but said he then refused to leave the car, resisting arrest by putting his hands behind his back, and trying to pull away from the officer. He had to be forcibly pulled to the ground, according to the report, to be placed under arrest.
Back at Wainscott headquarters, he was charged with third-degree criminal mischief, a felony, after allegedly scratching the lens of a security camera in his holding cell. Police said the damage was done with a screw.
The man was also charged with third-degree criminal tampering, a misdemeanor, after he “intentionally threw a bagel and applied cream cheese on the walls and on the cameras in the cell area.”
Police said they later found a pill bottle containing 10 orange pills and four blue pills, but no prescription, and identified the pills as Xanax.
In addition to the felony charge, Mr. Sarmiento was charged with D.W.I., obstructing governmental administration, criminal possession of a controlled substance, resisting arrest, and criminal tampering, all misdemeanors, as well as two violations, possession of a controlled substance “in a non-original container” and aggravated driving without a license. Under New York State law, the offenses were not bailable, and Justice David Filer released hm on his own recognizance, with a future date in court.
On July 6, a Woodmere man, a passenger in a car stopped at the Plaza in Montauk, was charged with fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.
Police said Akiva Max Spinner, 21, was charged with the felony after they found two plastic bags with what tested positive for cocaine in his wallet and in a bag between his feet. He too was released by Justice Filer on his own recognizance, with a date to return to court.