Police & Courts

East Hampton Village

An out-of-towner staying at the Mill House Inn approached a patrol car parked outside the Presbyterian Church on Main Street early Friday morning, complaining that he was lost. The officer told him he was walking in the wrong direction.

There was just one alcohol-related arrest in all of East Hampton Town last week, that of Peter F. Grupe, 22, formerly of Oakdale but now of Northwest Woods.

East Hampton Town police issued an alert on their Facebook page this week following an attempt to defraud a local resident. “It’s an old scam with a new twist,” Capt. Chris Anderson said on Tuesday.

An East Hampton man charged on New Year’s Day with drunken driving — the third time in the past 10 years — is facing three felony counts.

East Hampton

Emma Cardio, a caretaker for a Skimhampton Road house, called police on Dec. 29. She said she had last checked the house on Dec. 22, finding nothing amiss. When she arrived the afternoon of the 29th, however, she found a bedroom window shattered. An officer noted that it appeared that the window had been smashed from the outside, and that there was no obvious natural cause for the damage, such as a wind-blown tree branch. Ms. Cardio said nothing appeared to be missing from inside. 

A Tub Oarsman’s Road resident arrived home from work on Dec.

An East Hampton woman, Emma J. Pittman, 30, became the first person arrested by Sag Harbor Village police in 2016.

What's on the police logs this week.

Two men spent Christmas Day in the county jail following their arrest on charges of domestic violence. One of them, Orlando J. Roberts, 34, faces a felony charge of contempt of court for violating an order of protection issued in East Hampton Town Justice Court.

 Lisada Machuca of Montauk, the holder of the protective order and the mother of his child, told East Hampton Town police she had been in contact with Mr. Roberts recently regarding their child. They agreed to meet on Dec. 23.

 Over the course of the morning, as Mr. Roberts’s arrival was delayed, Ms.

A Springs man who police said drove off in his badly damaged 2002 Nissan after colliding with a utility pole was arrested a little after midnight Saturday and charged with misdemeanor drunken driving.

Amagansett

A Hand Lane man called police on the morning of Dec. 16, saying a stranger was looking into his windows. Craig Friedman told police he did not recognize either the man or the vehicle that was parked in his driveway. The man was gone when police arrived.

The owner of Brent’s Deli, Arthur Seekamp, reported Friday morning that a Stihl backpack leaf blower had been stolen.

An East Hampton man was released Tuesday from the county jail, where he had been held since last Thursday morning on charges of driving while intoxicated and without a license, both felonies.

With the approach of the new year, telephone scammers claiming to be agents of the Internal Revnue Service have been out in force all over the nation, and the East End has been no exception.

East Hampton Village police pulled a driver over last week for a minor traffic violation and found him to be high on prescription medication and marijuana.

East Hampton

A coach allegedly went after a referee over a call during a youth basketball game being held at East Hampton High School on Dec. 5. Police were called there for a disturbance, and the referee, Alfred J. Conforti of Mastic, told them the coach had pushed him and said “I’ll see you outside,” in front of the 11 and 12-year-olds. The coach had already left the Long Lane gym when police arrived. Joseph Vasile-Cozzo, the athletic director at the high school, told police he did not want the man on school grounds anymore. Mr.

For the second time in as many months, 20-year-old Jacob Schwartz is behind bars at the Suffolk County jail.

A Southampton man already facing criminal charges across Long Island was hit with a new one early Saturday morning in Sag Harbor.

Sag Harbor Village police stopped John P. Coen’s 2013 BMW on Route 114 in North Haven after he made an illegal U-turn on Main Street in the village and swerved back and forth while crossing the bridge. Charged with drunken driving at the felony level, he refused to take either a roadside breath test or the Breathalyzer test at headquarters.

East Hampton

An Old Orchard Lane couple discovered on Thanksgiving morning that their silver flatware, which they valued at $20,000, was missing. Kara and Brent Johnston told police they had not used the set, with 16 place-settings, since Thanksgiving 2014. The silver had reportedly been stored in a small mahogany chest in the front dining room.

Commissioners in four fire districts were re-elected on Tuesday night, each to five-year terms.

Voters in Amagansett had only one candidate for commissioner, but they had a choice when it came to a proposition on the ballot. By 30 to 1, voters approved the district’s request to establish an equipment repair reserve fund to pay for the costs of acquiring, maintaining, and repairing equipment, other than trucks and ambulances.

Carl Hamilton was elected to his sixth term in the Amagansett Fire District, also by a vote of 30 to 1.

An East Hampton Village man already facing misdemeanor charges of driving while high on crack cocaine has been indicted by a grand jury on a charge of felony grand larceny for stealing $5,000 from a Bridgehampton couple.

Amagansett

An “elderly gentleman” walked into D’Canela restaurant on the afternoon of Nov. 21 brandishing a $10 gift certificate he had purchased from restaurant.com. He told the owner and manager, Luis Aucapina, that he wanted to use the certificate toward a takeout order. Mr. Aucapina explained that the restaurant’s policy was to honor such certificates for customers seated at the restaurant, not for takeout. This apparently upset the man, who left after arguing the point with Mr. Aucapina. A couple of hours later, he called numerous times, yelling and cursing.

East Hampton Village police, responding Sunday morning to a call reporting a woman slumped over the steering wheel of a 2010 Toyota Prius, engine running, ended up arresting Phyllis Dewitt Chase, 58, of East Hampton, on charges of driving while intoxicated.

According to the police log, an officer had to rap three times on the driver’s side window to awaken Ms. Chase, whose car was parked at the train station.

East Hampton

An East Hampton High School student was in class on Nov. 12, he told police, when he received a phone call from a man who said his sister had been in an accident. Police contacted the sister, who was fine, and told the boy that the phone calls were part of a scam, and that several such incidents had been reported recently. The same man left similar messages on the family’s land line, according to the log.

Another student at the high school told police that on Nov.

Local police news

An East Hampton man who has spent much of his time recently in and out of custody is back behind bars this week.

A former bookkeeper and teacher’s aid at the Rainbow Preschool in Bridgehampton was charged with stealing more than $35,000 from the school. Lauren E. Comber, 30, of Sag Harbor turned herself in to Southampton Town police on Nov. 10.

East Hampton Town police made three arrests over the weekend on misdemeanor drunken-driving charges, all in Montauk.

On the day before Election Day, a Springs woman was caught on video hurrying off with a neighbor’s campaign signs. Elizabeth M. Ruth, 73, was an unlikely arrestee. The signs’ owner, Lynne Scanlon, told East Hampton Town police that she had put up several anti-rental registry signs, all of which had been stolen. She decided to fight back.

On Friday, for the second straight week, a driver ran into a vehicle driven by an off-duty law enforcement officer and then fled.

What's on the police logs.

What's on the police logs this week.