Residents of the Flanders-Riverside area had planned for days to speak before the Southampton Town Board about the need for greater policing on their streets in the face of a recent crime wave.
Tag: Southampton Police Department
Two men are facing a slew of charges — including felony robbery, burglary, and conspiracy — in connection with a home invasion in Flanders last week after they were arrested Monday, according to a Southampton Town police press release.
Emmanuel Coleman, 34, of Riverhead and Kwame Opoku, 32, of Mastic Beach, being led to their arraignment Thursday morning. (Credit: Carrie Miller)
The two men who police say are responsible for a shooting in Flanders Wednesday that critically injured one man are being remanded without bail at the Suffolk County Jail as they await a grand jury indictment. (more…)
TIM GANNON PHOTO | CAPTION: From left are Father Constantine of the Greek Orthodox Christian Church of the Hamptons, Dr. Peter Michalos of Hamptons Health Society, Southampton Police Chief Robert Pearce, and Jimmy Mack of the Robins Island Foundation.
A Southampton-based nonprofit organization called the Hamptons Health Society has donated more than $18,000 worth of emergency life support equipment to the Southampton Town Police.
The group on Monday presented the department with seven defibrillators, six resuscitators and two trauma kits at police headquarters. The defibrillators alone cost about $2,000 apiece, officials said.
Hamptons Health Society received the money for the equipment from donations by Gabriella and Louis Bacon of the Robins Island Foundation, the Southampton Elks Club and the Greek Orthodox Christian Church of the Hamptons.
“The idea of the organization is to pull people together and make them aware of the needs of the community,” said Dr. Peter Michalos, the group’s chairman. Hamptons Heath Society has made similar donations to other organizations in the past.
“This is fantastic for the police department, given budget constraints,” said Southampton Police Chief Robert Pearce. “You’re certainly addressing a need of the department.”
A Flanders man was arrested at his home June 11 after police found him in possession of a stolen computer and a 2009 Suzuki motorcycle engine, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.
Joshua Stoddard, 23, was charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, officials said.
• Angelina Francisco, 21, was arrested June 12 and charged with second-degree burglary, Riverhead police said. She was processed and held for arraignment. No additional details were available.
• Shanntaus Hancock was arrested last Thursday and charged with DWI, Riverhead police said. Police did not provide additional information about the arrest.
• Douglas Carbone was arrested last Saturday and charged with aggravated DWI, according to Riverhead police, who did not provide additional information about his arrest.
• An unknown woman took 13 men’s shirts from a Tanger Outlet store without paying last Saturday, Riverhead police said. The woman, wearing a “light green shirt, blue jeans and sunglasses,” took the shirts from the Giorgio Armani store. The value of the shirts hasn’t been determined, and police are investigating the incident.
• A Shoreham woman was arrested June 12 after stealing various items from a Walmart in South Setauket, county police said. Donna Hancock, 53, placed stolen items in her purse and left the store without paying for them, officials said. Ms. Hancock was charged with petit larceny, police said.
A traffic stop in Flanders led to the arrest of an East Hampton man on a drug charge, police said.
• Cameron Greenbaum, 23, of King Street in East Hampton was pulled over last Wednesday night on Longneck Boulevard in Flanders for driving without a registration and making an illegal U-turn, officials said. He then was found to have what police believed to be a methadone tablet, police said.
He was charged with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance .
• A 26-year-old Flanders resident, who does not have a valid NYS driver’s license, was arrested for driving while intoxicated in Southampton Saturday night, police said.
Gus Garcia-Blancarte of Riverside Avenue was pulled over for speeding and driving erratically on County Road 39 shortly after 10 p.m., police said.
He was charged with misdemeanor DWI, unlicensed operation and traffic violations, police said.
• Nicholas Fisher, 26, of Reeves Bay Trail in Flanders was charged with second-degree criminal contempt last Monday night after a traffic stop on Reeves Bay Trail in Flanders. His car was pulled over for a seat belt violation when he was found to have a court order of protection ordering him to stay away from his passenger, police said.
Those who are named in police reports have not been convicted of any crime or violation. The charges against them may later be reduced or withdrawn, or they may be found innocent.
Ten people, including seven Riverhead men and one Riverhead woman, face prostitution and other charges after they were arrested in a Riverside prostitution sting set up by Southampton police late Saturday night, police said.
Southampton cops went undercover as both prostitutes and customers in the operation conducted around the Riverside traffic circle, police said.
Riverhead residents Fabian Bhor, 40, Marvin Boco, 27, Ivan Parades, 17, Mario Soyos, 29, and Wilmo Urrea-Bedon, 43, as well as Amadeo Valaquez, 22, of Flanders, were all arrested and charged with third-degree patronizing a prostitute, a misdemeanor, after they allegedly agreed to pay money for either sex, oral sex, or both, police said.
Ruben Mutzutz, 36, of Riverhead was arrested and charged with third-degree patronizing a prostitute and resisting arrest after he fought with the cops arresting him, police said.
Timoteo Lopez, 27, of Riverhead was also charged with third-degree patronizing a prostitute and unlawful possession of marijuana after police found drugs during a search after his arrest, according to a police report.
A 65-year-old Mastic man, Joe Lee McKay, was charged with fourth-degree promoting prostitution, a misdemeanor, after he “steered” two of the arrested men towards the undercover cop and negotiated a price for the “prostitute,” police said.
April Robinson, 36, of Riverhead, was arrested and charged with prostitution, a misdemeanor, after police said she agreed to oral sex in exchange for money.
Police said they carried out the sting in the area because of citizen and business owner complaints of “frequent and highly visible” prostitution nearby. All the suspects arrested in the sting posted bail or were arraigned in Southampton Justice Court on Sunday, according to a police report.
A Riverhead man was one of two convicted drug dealers to be released from prison last week following Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota’s investigation into the “credibility” of a Southampton Town police officer involved in the cases.
He was the same man who filed a $50 million lawsuit against Southampton cops, alleging officers had illegally conducted a body cavity search and “threatened his son’s freedom” in order to get him to sign a false statement.
Mohammed Proctor, 36, had his convictions vacated and his indictments dismissed after the DA’s office began reviewing more than 100 arrests involving an office in the Southampton department’s now-disbanded Street Crime Unit.
“The decision to release convicted drug dealers back into the community under these circumstances is not undertaken lightly,” Mr. Spota said in a statement last week. “Rather, we are duty bound under the law to take this action.”
Mr. Spota said his office is looking into further pending and closed cases to “determine what, if any, additional action is necessary.”
“It is anticipated that other cases involving this unit will be dismissed,” he said.
Mr. Proctor, who was arrested in April 2010, filed a lawsuit that same year.
In a handwritten complaint filed while Mr. Proctor was an inmate at the Suffolk County jail in Riverhead, he alleges that Southampton police officers forcibly removed a bag of cocaine from his rectum without a proper search warrant. Mr. Proctor claims he was injured in the search and requested medical attention, but was refused by arresting officers.
“I don’t believe any of his allegations are founded,” said attorney Jeltje DeJong, who is defending Southampton police in the lawsuit. She has filed a motion to dismiss the case, which is still pending.
Mr. Proctor also claims in the suit that Southampton cops searched his mother’s vehicle and also his 16-year-old son without a proper warrant.
He claims that police coerced him into signing a false statement stating the drugs were found in his pants pocket by threatening to arrest his son for the illegal items found during a search of his home.
“You’re gonna sign this statement or your son goes to jail for everything in the house,” then-Sgt. James Kiernan is alleged in the suit to have said.
A felony complaint against Mr. Proctor and a supplementary police report — both submitted with the lawsuit — show conflicting reports on where the drugs were found. The felony complaint states narcotics were found in his pants pocket, while the supplementary report states the drugs were recovered from his rectum.
The narcotics found on Mr. Proctor were deemed admissible at trial.
He pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a controlled substance and had been incarcerated since last October, court records show.
The suit was filed against Sgt. Kiernan, as well as officers Vincent Cagno and Eric Sickles and several other unnamed Southampton police. An amended complaint also includes assistant district attorney Andrew Hefferman, whose attorney has also filed a motion to dismiss the case against him.
Mr. Proctor claims he was sexually assaulted by police, had his civil rights violated and suffers from “heart palpitations,” “severe depression,” and “nightmares” as a result of the incident. He is seeking $50 million in compensatory damages.
A registered sex offender from Flanders was arrested after he attempted to force a woman into the woods at knifepoint Sunday night on Flanders Road in Riverside, police said.
Benjamin Griffin, 57, of Cypress Avenue in Flanders was later located in the woods and arrested, police said. He was charged with second-degree attempted assault and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
Mr. Griffin is a level-3 sex offender, the level most likely to repeat as an offender, who by law is required to register for life.
He was convicted of felony rape in 1983 after attacking a female victim at knifepoint, according to Parent’s for Megan’s Law. He served just under 20 years in state prison, before being released in March 2003.
• A Riverhead man was arrested for driving under the influence of drugs Saturday after cops found angel dust in his car, Southampton Town police said.
Denzel Faines, 20, of East Main Street in Riverhead was approached by police after coming across Mr. Faines’ car stopped in the travel lanes of Flanders Road near Spinney Road in Flanders, police said. He was in the driver’s seat at the time, with his hazard lights on.
An officer found that Mr. Faines’ speech was difficult to understand and that the 20-year-old was stuttering, but he told the officer that he had just smoked “dust” prior to driving, officials said. Dust is also called angel dust or PCP.
Aside from the drugs, Mr. Faines was at the wheel with an invalid driver’s license and had three outstanding warrants for his arrest out of Suffolk County, police said. His car was also unregistered and uninsured, according to police, who charged him with driving while impaired by drugs, along with traffic violations and failure to appear in court on a warrant.
• An 18-year-old Flanders man was arrested over the weekend for allegedly breaking a glass door at the UA movie theater in Hampton Bays, Southampton Town police said.
Police got a call about 10:45 p.m. Friday reporting someone had broken a glass front door at the Montauk Highway theater, police said.
Officers located potential suspects a short time later and arrested Bryce Danowski of Huntington Lane in Flanders, officials said.
Mr. Danowski was charged with third-degree criminal mischief, a felony, and released on a court appearance ticket. No other arrests were reported by police.
• Moses Walker, 39, of Vail Avenue in Riverside was charged with unlawful possession of marijuana May 2 on Old Quogue Road in Riverside, police said. Mr. Walker was spotted by police about 11:40 p.m. dropping a plastic bag containing a green leafy substance believed to be marijuana on Old Quogue Road, authorities said. No other details were available.
• Luis Sopla, 30, of Bull Pasture Lane in East Hampton was charged with driving while intoxicated just after midnight Sunday in Flanders.
Mr. Sopla was stopped by police at the intersection of Flanders and Spinney roads after an officer saw him back up in an unsafe manner and also fail to stay in a lane, according to police.
In addition to the DWI, he was charged with first-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and traffic violations for moving from a lane unsafely and unsafe backing, according to police.
• Someone illegally entered a home on Silverbrook Drive in Flanders and wrote graffiti inside the building, according to police.
A neighbor reported seeing the door to the home open on April 14 and called police.
Those who are named in police reports have not been convicted of any crime or violation. The charges against them may later be reduced or withdrawn, or they may be found innocent.