Police

Update: Second suspect turns himself in after Riverhead DMV robbery

RiverheadPD HQ - Summer - 500

Update: Police have arrested the second suspect in an alleged robbery that happened outside the Riverhead DMV early Monday.

Bobby Riddick, 46, turned himself into police after learning he was a wanted man, authorities said.

He was charged with second-degree robbery and held for arraignment.

Original story: A Riverhead man who recently pleaded guilty after he was caught stealing candy from a Mattituck home with a weapon was arrested again early Monday — this time, according to police, for mugging a man near the DMV and taking $300 from him.

Riverhead Police said that around 1:45 a.m. they responded to a robbery at the DMV plaza, and upon arrival a 25-year-old man said he had been robbed by two other men who stole $300 from him.

An investigation led police to 46-year-old Kenneth Belcher following a short foot pursuit, police said, who was charged with second-degree robbery.

Police are still searching for the second man involved in the mugging.

According to the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, Mr. Belcher was released from custody June 5. He had been held on $50,000 cash bail before being released.

Online court records show that he pleaded guilty in relation to an incident that occurred at the end of March in Mattituck. Police said at the time that Mr. Belcher, along with another man, had been knocking on doors in a residential neighborhood asking for money.

Police searched the Pacific Avenue area, and learned that the man had gotten into one of the homes and was confronted by a woman, according to a police statement. The man — later identified by police as Mr. Belcher — asked the woman for money, but she refused.

After she told Mr. Belcher she couldn’t help him, he took a bag of Snickers candy bars and left the house. Mr. Belcher had also reportedly been caught with heroin just days before the incident.

Mr. Belcher had been arrested numerous times prior to the robbery on charges ranging from resisting arrest earlier this month to giving a false name to police to avoid getting arrested on an active warrant in 2011, according to previous News-Review articles.

Mr. Belcher pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a weapon in June. He was supposed to be due back for sentencing on Aug. 11.

He was arraigned at Riverhead Justice Court where he was remanded without bail, court officials said. He is due back in court July 11.

Belcher
Kenneth Belcher