Police & Courts

A proposed amendment to the East Hampton Town code would allow volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers with two years of qualifying service to apply for a partial tax exemption.

Rip currents kept East Hampton Town and Village lifeguards busy over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, but this week the story was less red flags and more “elevated marine life”: Some 20 sharks, mostly spinner sharks but also threshers, were spotted off Main Beach on Saturday and farther off town beaches as well.

An East Hampton Town police officer has filed a complaint with New York State's Division of Human Rights asserting that she has been a victim of sexual harassment and retaliatory working conditions, and has been denied promotions based on her gender.

On May 25, the day before a fire tore through Maison Close restaurant at 435 East Lake Drive in Montauk, David Browne, the chief fire marshal for the town, did a routine fire inspection and found 11 violations. Four involved improper use of electrical cords and three more cited overdue servicing of fire suppression equipment. In the official report from the fire marshal's office none of those were blamed, and the cause of the fire was listed as undetermined.

There was another shoplifting incident at the Balenciaga store recently, though nothing on the scale of the one last year, when an organized ring of five thieves made off with $94,000 in luxury handbags and led police on a high-speed chase before being captured. On June 25, a woman stole a $520 pair of sunglasses while her male companion was making a purchase. Surveillance cameras caught the incident on tape.

State Attorney General Letitia James has announced the sentencing of a Bridgehampton investment adviser to one to three years in prison for what she described as a “multi-million-dollar securities and loan fraud scheme that cheated dozens of New Yorkers out of nearly $7 million.

A June 17 traffic stop on Pantigo Road in front of East Hampton Justice Court led to felony weapons charges for an Islip Terrace man.

This week Senior Chief Nathaniel J. O’Connell relieved Master Chief William B. Harris, who has served as Officer in Charge of Station Montauk for the past four years.

After pleading guilty in January to first-degree manslaughter in the 2022 death of Kevin Somers, Marc Dern of Springs was sentenced in a negotiated disposition Monday to five years in prison and five years of supervised release.

On Friday at about 1:30 p.m., police received a call about “a possible deceased human body” found on a beach at Montauk State Park. Officers determined it to be “the silicone lower part of a female mannequin.”

It won’t just be birds, helicopters, and seaplanes trailing banners up above East Hampton Village beaches this summer — add drones to the list.

The big booms are back, it seems, in Montauk. Late last Thursday night, a caller reported hearing one in the vicinity of the Surf Lodge. An officer responded but couldn’t find anything amiss, and the call was deemed “unfounded.” Two nights later, two more people made similar reports, but again, officers found nothing.