Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini announced there will be enhanced patrols by members of the East End DWI Task Force during the holiday weekend in an effort to deter individuals from driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. READ
Tag: East End DWI Task Force
Riverhead Town police arrested a Greenport man and a Cutchogue man at sobriety/safety checkpoints Wednesday night, police said. (more…)
Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller (left) joined SCDA Thomas Spota at Tuesday’s press conference to unveil a plan to combat drunken drivers. (Credit: Carrie Miller)
East End law enforcement agencies joined Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota Tuesday afternoon to unveil a plan to bolster sobriety checkpoints on land and at sea this summer.
The East End DWI Task Force will conduct additional checkpoints aimed at cracking down on drunken an drug impaired drivers and boaters, Mr. Spota announced during a press conference at the U.S. Coast Guard station in Hampton Bays.
Four people were arrested on driving while intoxicated and drugs charges during an operation by the East End Stop DWI task force in Southold Saturday night, according to a Southold Town police statement.
Officers set up sobriety checkpoints and patrolled the North Fork as part of the operation, police said.
John Erb, 50 of Levittown was arrested and charged with aggravated DWI. June Kirby, 44, of Hauppauge and Victoria Murray, 29, of Floral Park were both arrested and charged with DWI.
Morris Shuman, 70, of Brooklyn was also arrested on the North Fork and charged with DWI and unlawful possession of marijuana, police said.
All four drivers were processed and held for arraignment, police said.
Five drivers were arrested at DWI checkpoints set up throughout Southold Town by the East End DWI Task Force Saturday night and early Sunday morning, town police said.
Below is a list of those arrested and the charges they face:
• Christopher Zukowski, 61, of Southold was charged with driving while intoxicated.
• Chelsea Anderson, 20, of East Marion was charged with driving while intoxicated and cited for three traffic violations.
• Dillon Cassidy, 26, of Riverhead was charged with driving while intoxicated and cited for three traffic violations.
• John Nordin, 50, of Mattituck was charged with driving while intoxicated and unlawful possession of marijuana, and cited for four traffic violations.
• Cesar Chavez-Ruiz, 27, of Mattituck was charged with driving while intoxicated and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, and cited for two traffic violations.
All of the arrested were held overnight at police headquarters for a Sunday morning arraignment, police said.
Police arrested four people for driving while intoxicated Saturday night as part of an East End DWI Task Force operation in Southold Town, according to a police statement.
Police said Kevin Manley, 34, of Westbury was arrested and charged with felony DWI and unlawful possession of marijuana, a violation. Riverhead resident Joe Hernandez, 20, was charged with driving while ability impaired by drugs and unlawful possession of marijuana, police said.
Two other drivers — James Howard Miller, 61, of Williamsport, Penn. and Rayne Hoeffling, 31 of Greenport — were charged with driving while intoxicated.
Southold Town, county parks and state police all assisted in the crackdown, police said.
Riverhead Police sent out a warning on Friday that the Suffolk County District Attorney’s “DWI task Force” would be setting up checkpoints in town over the Memorial Day weekend, but seven people were still arrested at those checkpoints Saturday night.
Arrested Saturday night at checkpoints in Riverhead Town were the following: Francisco Sabin, 36, of Sound Avenue in Riverhead, for DWI; Pedro Garcia, 30, of Front Street in Greenport, for DWI; Peter Helsinki, 18, of Middle Road in Cutchogue, for driving under the influence of drugs and unlawful possession of marijuana; Matthew Larson, 35, of Town Harbor Lane in Southold, for DWI; Shane Hands, 20, of Hillcrest Drive in Orient, for driving under the influence of drugs and unlawful possession of marijuana; James Hinch, 37, of Sweetbury Hill in Center Moriches, for DWI; and Alisa Raspanjini, 30, of Quaker Hill Path in Huntington, for driving while ability impaired.
Police say additional enforcement actions of this type can be expected in the future.
The Task Force was established by District Attorney Tom Spota last year and consists of officers from departments in the Riverhead Town, Southold Town, Shelter Island Town, Suffolk County, and New York State police departments.
Police will be stepping up drunk driving patrols on the East End Super Bowl Sunday, but they’re not saying where.
Officers from the East End DWI Task Force will be out and about somewhere on the East End, mirroring the efforts of the Suffolk County PD, Suffolk’s Parks Police and the County Sheriff’s Office in the five western townships.
The East End DWI Task Force, which is headed by Riverhead Police Captain Richard Smith, will have the Sheriff’s Blood Alcohol Testing (BAT) mobile unit to help process alcohol and drug-related arrests, according to a release from the Suffolk County Stop DWI Program. The BAT unit will be part of patrols on major roads and highways.
The stepped-up patrols are funded through a grant from the governor’s traffic safety committee.
The release quotes a report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration which found that 40 percent of fatal crashes on Super Bowl Sunday involved drunk driving.
Four men were arrested during an East End DWI Task Force operation in Riverhead Friday night, authorities said.
The operation included a checkpoint on East Main Street as well as random patrols in the area conducted by the Riverhead, Suffolk County and Quogue police departments, said Riverhead police Lt. David Lessard.
The checkpoint ran from 8 p.m. on Friday night through 4 a.m. Saturday morning and netted four arrests, police said.
Rodney Shorter, 36, of Mattituck, was charged with driving while intoxicated and unlawful possession of marijuana, police said.
Jose Ortega, 34, of Mattituck and Robert Reddick Jr., 22, of Southampton were arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated, police said.
Rodney Trappen, 35, of Aquebogue was also arrested in the police operation and charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated, unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and unlawful possession of marijuana.
Lt. Lessard said the task force, which began this summer and encompasses police departments across the East End, will conduct an additional operation later this year.
He advised residents to drive safely during the holidays.
BETH YOUNG PHOTO | Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota speaks at a press conference Friday at the U.S. Coast Guard Station in Hampton Bays.
The Suffolk County East End DWI Task Force plans to expand its mission to cover Boating While Intoxicated crimes next summer, after a successful inaugural summer of DWI checkpoints on the East End.
Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota announced the effort at a press conference at the U.S. Coast Guard station in Hampton Bays Friday afternoon.
“We just the other day decided the time had come when we had to do this,” said Mr. Spota, who said he had just recently been involved in the indictment of a man who killed a father of two when he was in a waterway channel going the wrong way at an excessive rate of speed. “I will deputize all the officers so they can cross local boundaries.”
Mr. Spota said the Coast Guard will also play a major role in the effort.
“All agencies will participate, even those that don’t have a boat,” he said. “We have to be as aggressive as we are on the land.”
Mr. Spota said the D.A.’s office will use the proceeds from assets seized from criminals to fund overtime expenses for local departments, as well as state grant money and fees that Suffolk County receives from people who are convicted of DWI.
“The residents of the East End will not be paying a nickel for this effort,” he said.
Mr. Spota added that the DWI Task Force checkpoints, which began Memorial Day Weekend throughout the East End and have netted numerous arrests each weekend, will continue on designated weekends through the end of this year.
Mr. Spota said he had personally spent 11 years as a homicide prosecutor consoling families who couldn’t understand how a drunk driver had ruined their family’s life.
He also thanked representatives from the East End police departments who participated in the effort, many of whom were at the press conference.
“The very worst part of policing is bearing the burden of knocking on that door to bear that terrible news,” he said.
“They say success has many fathers but failure is an orphan,” he said. “We have a lot of proud fathers here. As district attorney, I’m deeply grateful for their enthusiasm and cooperation.”
