Police & Courts

Villa Italian Specialties in East Hampton Village is temporarily closed following a fire in the store on Sunday afternoon. 

A grand jury has indicted the mother accused of killing her twin toddlers late last month and then driving to Montauk with their bodies in the car. 

A Texas woman, Allison O’Neill of Houston, called police to her Main Street residence Sunday at about 11:25 p.m. to report an intruder. Officers found a woman, highly intoxicated, sitting on a bench in the mudroom.

A 19-year-old East Hampton man was charged last week with two counts of statutory rape involving a 13-year-old girl.

Laura Hagerman, who just graduated from Bridgehampton High School, and Anais Kuss, who just graduated from Pierson High School, both said they wanted to give back to their community and continue the tradition of service to the Bridgehampton Fire Department in their families.

An Uber driver whose license had been suspended or revoked 45 times was arrested while driving in Montauk .

Near dawn on Saturday, a 21-year-old man westbound in a pickup truck on Montauk Highway went off the highway across from Brent’s Deli in Amagansett, severed a utility pole by the American Legion Hall — ending up, improbably, with the pole, severed from its base, in the bed of the truck — and finally hit a tree.

"There is nothing we can do now but hope we get justice," Rolando Garces, a brother of the victim, said after Joseph A. Grippo's indictment on second-degree murder charges was unsealed Friday morning.

Tenia Campbell's mother, Vanessa McQueen, tried to calm her down over the phone as a countywide search for Ms. Campbell and her daughters ensued. "I asked about her twin baby girls and she said they are already dead. 'I killed them with my bare hands,' " Ms. McQueen told police in a written statement.

The 2-year-olds, Jasmin and Jaida Campbell, were likely dead before their mother, Tenia Campbell, now charged with their murder, was found in Montauk with them strapped in their car seats, Suffolk County police said. 

“Barry embodied community policing and was a mentor to many officers,” Police Chief Michael Sarlo posted on the East Hampton Town Police Department’s Facebook page following a ceremonial walkout, in which his fellow officers from both the town police and the Fire Department saluted him. “His work ethic and dedication will be greatly missed by the department and the citizens he served.”

Update, June 27, 11:30 p.m.: A Medford mother was charged with the murder of her twin 2-year-old daughters, Suffolk County police announced late Thursday night. Tenia Campbell, 24, was taken into custody in Montauk County Park earlier that afternoon.

A 27-year-old Amagansett woman was charged with drunken driving at about 9 p.m. Saturday after she hit a utility pole on Industrial Road in Montauk, near Edgemere Street.

Abigail Rose Gawronski, who had been southbound in a 2007 Mazda, told East Hampton Town police she’d swerved to avoid a deer. Police, however, said she performed poorly on field sobriety tests, and she was held for the rest of the night on the misdemeanor charge. East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky released her following a Sunday morning arraignment, and she is due back in court on July 11.

A homeless man who fled after being surprised inside an East Hampton Village house on Friday night afterward broke in to a private beach cabana at the Maidstone Club, village police reported.

Detective Lt. Tony Long said a couple arrived at their Maidstone Lane house at about 9:40 p.m. to find a man inside. It appeared he had been staying there and was startled by the homeowners’ arrival. He ran off before they called 911.

Two weeks to the day after East Hampton Town’s first murder in a decade, Joseph A. Grippo, a 47-year-old with a criminal record, was arrested last Thursday in the killing of Robert Casado in Montauk’s Kirk Park.

Mr. Grippo lured Mr. Casado to the park, where he killed him with a pickax, all because they had the same love interest, Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini said outside East Hampton Town Justice Court, where Mr. Grippo had been arraigned on a second-degree murder on Friday.

A Brooklyn couple reported their 2001 Lexus RX 350 stolen from their driveway in Montauk on Friday.

Jacqueline E. Mosca-Zarodkiewicz and her husband, Joseph Zarodkiewicz, told East Hampton Town police that their gray Lexus was missing when they returned to their house on Soundview Drive at about 5 p.m. They last saw it on June 16 at about 7 p.m., parked in the driveway.

A passer-by was concerned about a sick-looking raccoon on Monday evening near 77 Bay Street. It scurried into the woods as police arrived, but they said it appeared to be in good health.

“We didn’t have to wait very long for our first call,” Robert Davis, the first captain, remembered. The members were down at the firehouse on New Year’s Day when it came over. “I don’t think we were there five minutes before the tones went off. And it happened to be my uncle. He had fallen.” 

Joseph Grippo, a 47-year-old who lives on Old Montauk Highway, has been charged with second-degree murder, Suffolk County police announced late Thursday night.  

A 47-year-old man, arrested on Thursday and charged in the murder of Robert Casado, lured Mr. Casado to Kirk Park, where he killed him with a pickaxe, all because they had the same love interest, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini.

Update, June 25: Robert Clinton, whom police had been looking for since last week, has been located, Suffolk police said on Tuesday. He was not hurt. 

Originally, June 21: A 59-year-old man who may be in need of medical attention has gone missing from a group home in Water Mill, Suffolk County police said. 

Police issued a Silver Alert for Robert Clinton, who was last seen at the State Operated Community Residence at 1272 Montauk Highway in Water Mill on June 17 at about 3 p.m.

When officers approached John P. Detmer, he reportedly dropped a plastic bag containing over 500 milligrams of cocaine from his pants pocket.

Suffolk police are investigating the death of a Bridgehampton native whose body was found by the side of the road in Patchogue on Saturday night.

“I’d like to apologize to the people of Montauk,” Elvin Silva-Ruiz, accused of arranging for the shipment of cocaine and oxycodone from Puerto Rico to Montauk and arrested in a major drug bust last summer, told a Suffolk County Criminal Court judge at his sentencing last Thursday morning. 

Strong winds on Saturday night gave people on a raft off Havens Beach a hard time. After calling 911 at 5:05 p.m., the caller rowed his own boat out to the raft and towed it back to shore. 

An 18-year-old with a learner's permit crashed a 2002 Porsche Carrera on Saturday afternoon and was charged with misdemeanor D.W.I.

The Southampton Town Police Department has joined more social media platforms in an attempt to further reach the community.

A bicyclist was seriously injured in a car accident in front of Damark's Market Deli on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton late Monday afternoon.

Elvin Silva-Ruiz, accused of arranging for the shipment of cocaine and oxycodone from Puerto Rico to Montauk, was arrested last August at Kennedy Airport, where he was getting ready to board a flight to Puerto Rico to pay for more drugs.

As Montauk residents began their day last Thursday, a couple walking a trail in Kirk Park made a gruesome discovery: a man unconscious and with severe head injuries. He died at the hospital a short time later. Suffolk County homicide detectives are investigating his death as a murder.