News

Southold Police: Two graffiti arrests and one DWI arrest last week

Southold Town Police arrested two young men for defacing two vans with graffiti and one woman for DWI in separate incidents on Wednesday, Feb. 23.

• At about 11:30 p.m., police received a report that several people were spray painting graffiti on vans parked behind the Frisky Oyster restaurant in Greenport. When police arrived, they found two large box vans that had been spray painted with graffiti, according to police. They found Justin J. Groboski, 24, of Cutchogue and Nicholas Sverlazza, 19, of Southold in a parking lot near the scene. Police said they found spray paint matching the graffiti on their hands and arrested them, charging them with making graffiti, a misdemeanor. Both men were taken to police headquarters, processed and released on bail.

• Christine M. Scarth was charged with felony driving while intoxicated at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 23 after she was stopped while driving on South Harbor Road in Southold at 6:30 p.m. Police said they pulled her over for failing to maintain her lane and having an expired registration. Ms. Scarth was taken to police headquarters and held for a morning arraignment.

• A Cutchogue landlord was arrested by Town Police on the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 25 after he allegedly cut his tenant’s telephone line. Gilberto Jimenez, 40, was charged with criminal mischief after he reportedly cut the phone line with a knife after an argument with his tenant, who was preparing to move out, according to police reports.

• Joy D. Kauffman, 47, of Hampton Bays was charged with petit larceny on Tuesday, March 1 after a police said she had issued a check at a Southold store knowing that she had insufficient funds in the account.

• Robert W. Juarez, 23, of Laurel, was arrested on a warrant for DWI from the Quogue Village Police after he was stopped for a traffic violation by Southold Police on Route 25 in Mattituck on the evening of March 1. He was also charged with aggravated unlicensed operation, police said, after a computer check revealed that his driver’s license was suspended and his vehicle registration was revoked.

• Town Police responded to a smoldering mulch pile on Commerce Drive in Cutchogue four times in the past week. All the fires, at a property owned by Cutchogue Materials & Recycling, were quickly contained. A large mulch pile at the site caught fire early in December 2010 and took firefighters several hours to contain. This week, police on patrol responded to smoke emanating from the site just before 1 a.m. on Feb. 21, at about 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 23, just after 3 a.m. on Feb. 24 and just after noon on Feb. 26.

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.