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Police & Courts

Aftermath of an Accident



A Springs man convicted of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in October after a three-day jury trial was sentenced last Thursday.

William Cuthbert, who turned 57 yesterday, was ordered to pay East Hampton Town Justice Court $1,575 in fines and fees. As a condition for avoiding probation, he was required to complete an anger-management course over the next year; failure to do so would result in his being resentenced. In addition, he must stay out of trouble with the law over the same time period.

As he stood before Justice Steven Tekulsky, Mr.

Dec 11, 2014
D.W.I. Arrest in Montauk



There was just one arrest this past cold and rainy week on charges of driving while intoxicated, that of an Amagansett man, Robert J. Badkin, 51. Mr. Badkin was pulled over on Edgemere Street in Montauk, near where his business is located, last Thursday evening.

East Hampton Town police said the motorist failed roadside sobriety tests and was taken back to headquarters in Wainscott, where his breath test was reportedly recorded as .12 of 1 percent. A reading of .08 or higher triggers the D.W.I. charge.

Mr.

Dec 11, 2014
Graffiti Found on Stop Signs



As demonstrations swept across America in the hours after the decision by a Staten Island grand jury last week not to indict a New York City police officer in connection with the death of a man he had placed in a choke hold on July 17, one or more individuals took to the streets of East Hampton Town and Village, apparently expressing anger with the decision.

East Hampton Village police reported on Monday that in the overnight hours following the Dec.

Dec 11, 2014
Guilty Plea in a Fatality



A Hampton Bays woman charged with drunken driving after her passenger died in an early morning single-car crash in Southampton Village on April 19 pleaded guilty on Nov. 21 to vehicular manslaughter, a felony.

Allison J. Rydberg, 26, admitted that her blood-alcohol level was well over twice the legal limit at the time of the accident, and that she had been driving at an excessive speed.

Tad Scharfenberg, her attorney, said last week that she would be sentenced on Feb.

Dec 11, 2014
On the Police Logs 12.11.14



East Hampton

A hacker broke into the Fingerhut account of an Oakview Highway woman last month and changed the mailing address. Fingerhut was notified and is monitoring the account. Eileen Schaefer told police no purchases had been made on the account.

East Hampton Village

An anonymous caller told police that occupied cars were parked on Mill Hill Lane for extended periods of time Friday evening.

Dec 11, 2014
I’m Not Going to Pass the Test’



East Hampton Town police arrested two 23-year-olds on drunken-driving charges over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Both were said to have cooperated fully with the officers.

Carlos Serra-Bencosme of Montauk was pulled over on Edgemere Road there early Monday morning. Police said his 2014 Kia was swerving across lane lines.

“I’m not gonna lie. I had like, four beers,” the officer quoted the driver as saying. At police headquarters in Wainscott he consented to take the breath test, which produced a reading of .14 of 1 percent.

Dec 4, 2014
On the Police Logs 12.04.14



Amagansett

A pickpocket was caught on video at Indian Wells Tavern around midnight on Nov. 15, reaching into a jacket pocket of a patron and stealing her wallet. The victim, Jacqueline Albright-Kehoe, said she did not want to press charges as long as the thief either returned the Coach purse, which had $30 in cash and a debit card in it, or reimbursed her for the stolen items. The tavern’s manager, however, told police that the suspect is no longer welcome there.

Dec 4, 2014
Also on the Logs 11.27.14

Amagansett



A car parked on Shore Drive East over the weekend of Nov. 8 and 9 had its taillights vandalized and its rear license plate removed. Ramon Guante estimated the damage, including the cost to replace the stolen plate, at $250.



East Hampton



Francis F. Fleetwood was the target of an email phishing scam on Nov. 17.

Nov 26, 2014
Charge in Theft of Jewelry

A married couple from Calverton admitted last week, in separate statements to the police, that they had stolen jewelry from the woman’s mother, a resident of Springs with whom they had been staying, to feed the man’s heroin habit.



East Hampton Town detectives, who had been investigating the repeated thefts from a Lotus Avenue house, took Jacqueline Cobb, 30, and Jason A. Cobb, 33, into custody on Nov. 19. Each was charged with grand larceny in the fourth degree, a felony. More charges could be pending.



According to their statements, Ms.

Nov 26, 2014
This Time, It Is a Felony

A 25-year-old Springs man who has been in trouble with the law several times since he turned 18 was arrested again last week, this time on a felony charge.



Kody J. Knudsen was said by East Hampton Town police to have been driving a 2004 Chevrolet without its owner’s permission when he was pulled over on Three Mile Harbor Road in Springs a little after midnight last Thursday. According to police, Mr.

Nov 26, 2014
A Correction

In an article last week on the upcoming trial of Jason Lee on charges including rape, a headline on the article stated that jury selection would begin on Jan. 27. That date has been set aside for any remaining pre-trial issues to be settled, with jury selection expected the following week.

Nov 25, 2014
Car Crash Closes Highway

Southampton Town police are investigating the cause of an accident on Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton Monday morning that left one of three vehicles involved in the crash in flames, and sent four people to Southampton Hospital with what Bridgehampton Fire Chief Gary Horsburgh described as minor injuries.



The accident happened a little before 7:30 a.m. Monday by Halsey Lane near Citarella. Rick Ostenberg, an East Hampton Fire Department chief, was in the area and was the first firefighter on the scene.

Nov 25, 2014
Banker Charged With D.W.I



A traffic stop of a 2014 Aston-Martin late Saturday night led to the arrest of a former Citigroup chairman on a drunken-driving charge.

East Hampton Village police said Chad A. Leat, 58, who splits his time between New York and Bridgehampton, was clocked at 45 miles per hour on Main Street, where the speed limit is 30, when he passed a southbound patrol car. The officer followed Mr. Leat as he turned west onto Woods Lane, and said the Aston-Martin was alternately swerving across lane lines and tailgating another car.

Mr.

Nov 20, 2014
Hiding in The Kitchen



East Hampton Village police arrested a Newburgh, N.Y., man early Saturday morning after a cab driver complained that he had not paid the $60 fare agreed upon.

At about 2:20 a.m., Joshua George Colon, 32, hired a Roadrunner taxi, driven by James Geddis, to take him from the Shagwong restaurant on Main Street in Montauk to the Huntting Inn on Main Street in East Hampton, but balked at paying the fare when they arrived in East Hampton. He told Mr. Geddis he would need to get money from his room, but then never returned.

Police found Mr.

Nov 20, 2014
On the Police Logs 11.20.14



Amagansett

Four custom-made scallop dredges and their frames were stolen out of William P. Carman’s boat, which was in his front yard on Abraham’s Path between 5 p.m. on Nov. 6 and 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 7. All told the cost to replace them is $550.

East Hampton

A duck blind belonging to Ethan S. King and Kelly King was stolen from Northwest Harbor sometime between Oct. 25 and Nov. 11. They told police it would have taken someone approximately two hours to remove the structure, which they said was worth about $500.

Nov 20, 2014
Police Warn of Phone Scam



Several residents and local businesses have been the targets of an ongoing phone scam, according to police, who are warning people to be on the alert.

On Nov. 11, Special Effects, a beauty salon on Osborne Lane in East Hampton Village, received a call from a man claiming to represent PSEG Long Island and threatening to shut off  its power unless he was given a credit card to settle an unpaid balance.

Nov 20, 2014
A Call for 24-Hour Medics



The Montauk Fire District’s board of commissioners faced a full house, including many of the hamlet’s older residents, when it met on Tuesday evening. The crowd showed up to ask the commissioners to extend their paid-paramedic program from 12 hours a day to full-time coverage.

The program, instituted to provide faster response, began in June 2013 and expired in September of that year.

Nov 13, 2014
Ebola Response Training

Like other emergency medical service providers on the East End, E.M.S. personnel in the Bridgehampton Fire Department, pictured above during a drill on Monday, are in the midst of training for how to respond in the event of a suspected Ebola case. Based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and mandates from the New York State Commissioner of Health, all emergency medical technicians, including volunteers, must learn how to don and take off infectious disease apparel. Suffolk County E.M.S. has been updating all 96 E.M.S. agencies on these procedures.

Nov 13, 2014
On the Police Logs 11.13.14



Amagansett

Police were called to Old Stone Market on the morning of Nov. 3 because a man who had previously paid for items with a check that bounced returned and tried to buy cigarettes. He was told he was no longer welcome at the market. The man became irate, frightening Bienvenida Pujols, who works there and had been issued a court order of protection against the man several years ago, which has since expired.

Nov 13, 2014
Road Arrest



East Hampton Village police stopped a Greenport woman who was driving without headlights Sunday evening and wound up charging her with felony possession of cocaine.

Woods Lane was the scene of the traffic stop. Police said the driver, Lynelle Christine Ross, 48, could not produce proof of insurance for her 2006 Mazda, which was found to have a suspended registration, a misdemeanor.

Nov 13, 2014
Tapped for Attorney General



Loretta E. Lynch, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, which covers all of Long Island, has been nominated by President Barack Obama to be the next attorney general of the United States. The President introduced Ms. Lynch as his nominee in a press conference at the White House on Saturday.

Last year Ms. Lynch began the prosecution of two South Fork cases that came to national attention.

In what she called “one of the largest investment frauds in Long Island history,” Ms. Lynch prosecuted two brothers-in-law, Brian R.

Nov 13, 2014
Tasered After Chase, Fight



A Sag Harbor man made a bad situation worse early Sunday morning, according to Southampton Town police. Kenneth Araya, 27, was driving on Noyac Road “at a high rate of speed,” police said, when an officer activated his emergency lights. The car kept going, however, leading police on a chase along side roads before finally coming to a stop on Peninsula Drive in Sag Harbor.

At the side of the road, according to the report, Mr. Araya fought with the officer, who was forced to use his Taser to subdue him.

Nov 13, 2014
As the Sun Went Down



There were no arrests made by either the East Hampton Town or Village Police Departments on drunken-driving charges this past week. There was one such arrest in Sag Harbor, which took place as the sun went down on Halloween.

Sag Harbor Village police stopped Michael Beckman, 69, at about 5:30 p.m., saying his 2005 Mercedes Benz convertible had gone through a red light at the intersection of Main Street and Brick Kiln Road. He was pulled over by the Getty gas station and reportedly performed poorly on field sobriety tests.

Nov 6, 2014
Needles, Spoon, Heroin in the Sunglasses Case



East Hampton Village police charged a Bohemia man early Friday morning with possession of heroin and two other misdemeanors.

An officer stopped David J. Birgeles’s 2013 Nissan on Montauk Highway for speeding, according to the report, and while talking to him felt he was “extremely nervous” and “making furtive movements.” Mr. Birgeles, 35, agreed to have his car searched, and police said they found a sunglasses case in the driver-side door containing four hypodermic needles, a spoon, a tourniquet, and a metal rod.

Nov 6, 2014
On the Police Logs 11.06.14



Amagansett

An employee of D’Canela, a restaurant on Main Street, was punched in the face several times during a dispute with a patron early Sunday morning. The patron, a male, had allegedly entered the women’s bathroom and pushed a female out of it. That prompted the employee to step in, and punches followed. The patron was forced to leave the restaurant and told not to return.

Nov 6, 2014
High School Youths Charged



Three seniors at Southampton High School were caught in the act of burglarizing a Springs residence on Friday afternoon, according to the East Hampton Town Police Department. The three, all aged 17 and residents of Southampton, were arrested on felony charges of burglary and misdemeanor criminal mischief.

Police said the trio, whose last names were not released because they may be eligible for youthful offender treatment, had targeted the house of a 16-year-old East Hampton High School student, whose name was blacked out on the report.

Oct 30, 2014
Incompetent to Stand Trial



A man who walked the grounds of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons on Oct. 8 carrying a spring-loaded baton, classified by East Hampton Village police as a weapon, has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial, it was announced last Thursday in East Hampton Town Justice Court. Justice Steven Tekulsky had sent Daniel Glazer, 41, of Rego Park, for psychiatric evaluation two days after the incident.

Mr. Glazer was arrested in downtown Montauk on Oct. 9. Because of the finding, however, the two misdemeanor charges against him will be dropped.

Oct 30, 2014
Irish Press Follow Lee Case



A trial date for Jason Lee, a former Goldman-Sachs managing director accused of raping an Irish woman in East Hampton during the summer of 2013, has not been scheduled, but Irish eyes are watching.

Reporters for three Irish news organizations have been turning up at Mr. Lee’s court appearances in Riverside. Mr. Lee is to appear for a 16th time in the courtroom of Supreme Court Justice Barbara Kahn on Nov. 17, when his trial is to be scheduled.

“It’s got several elements,” Rob Crilly, a freelance journalist covering the story for The Irish Times, said.

Oct 30, 2014
Leandra’s Law Arrest



A New York State trooper arrested an East Hampton man on Saturday night on a charge of aggravated driving while intoxicated with a child in the car, a felony.

State police said Flavio E. Pena-Vallejo, 42, was drunk when he was pulled over for a traffic violation on Montauk Highway near Ocean Road in Bridgehampton a little before midnight. His 6-year-old son was in the back of his 1998 Honda Civic in a booster seat.

Mr. Pena-Vallejo was taken to state police headquarters in Riverside, where he agreed to take a breath test.

Oct 30, 2014
On the Police Logs 10.30.14



Amagansett

An exterior wall of the Ganeaux clothing store on Main Street was vandalized with spray paint on the evening of Oct. 19. A witness followed the vandal, who crossed the street a couple of times before disappearing into the municipal parking lot. Police checked the area to no avail.

 

Olivia Kronemeyer left Indian Wells Tavern early Friday morning and went to a male friend’s house on Indian Wells Highway. When she entered, she told police, one of her friend’s roommates began screaming at her.

Oct 30, 2014