Jerry Larsen, a candidate for East Hampton Village mayor, filed a report of harassment with the East Hampton Town police on Jan. 15 after having received three anonymous letters that disparaged his character and campaign, and contained language such as “I would caution you to watch yourself.”
A letter critical of Mr. Larsen was also sent to Chris Minardi, a member of the zoning board of appeals who had been considering a bid for village trustee as Mr. Larsen’s running mate, and to Leonard Ackerman, a lawyer who has donated to Mr. Larsen’s campaign.
The typed letters were sent to the residences of each recipient. On the envelopes, the addresses had been written by hand. Mr. Larsen gave the original letters and envelopes to the police, and he has hired Richard Picciochi, a handwriting analyst, to try to identify the author.
Marcos Baladron, Mr. Larsen’s campaign manager, showed The Star copies of the letters on Tuesday.
The first letter was sent to Mr. Minardi in April, shortly after Mr. Larsen had declared his candidacy. Having heard that Mr. Minardi was considering running with Mr. Larsen, the author expressed surprise that “someone with your character would align yourself with him,” writing, “you have more integrity than that.”
In the letters to Mr. Larsen, which were sent between May and October, the author called him a “bitter and nasty man,” and, in reference to his mayoral campaign, said “you are going to look foolish” and “you are doing this for all the wrong reasons.”
Mr. Larsen said he had been brushing off the letters until he received the most recent one on Oct. 29, which made reference to his son, whom the writer had accused of having “marijuana burning” in the apartment the candidate rents on Newtown Lane. “How do you like your tiny little apartment that you’re not living in?” the writer added, insinuating that Mr. Larsen, who also has a house in Northwest Woods, is not a bona fide village resident.
Mr. Larsen said he suspects that someone associated with the current village government is the author, and has submitted Freedom of Information Act requests for village documents in an attempt to find handwriting that matches the writer’s. He hired Mr. Picciochi in December to examine a signature and other handwriting that he believes contain similarities.
Mr. Larsen has disclosed privately who he thinks is behind the letters, but will not do so on the record. He filed the police report, he said, so that law enforcement officers could further Mr. Picciochi’s analysis by examining more writing samples. “Let the District Attorney’s office investigate this fully,” he said.
Capt. Chris Anderson said on Tuesday that town police are investigating the matter, but have not yet enlisted the help of the district attorney’s office.
