The Press News Group is committed to protecting the privacy of its readers and those in the community. While police blotters are published and remain archived in our print editions, we don't believe that a single mistake should follow someone around for the rest of their lives on the internet. Therefore, content on this page will be removed six weeks after it first appeared.
EAST HAMPTON VILLAGE — A traffic stop for a license plate violation by an East Hampton Village Police officer on Dunemere Lane just north of Further Lane on Monday morning led to the driver being arrested on multiple charges, including two felony counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree. Several hours later, a man who said he was the owner of the vehicle came into East Hampton Village Police headquarters, where he was also arrested on two charges, including another felony charge of criminal possession of a forged instrument. According to Detective Sergeant Jennifer Dunn, the two men were in East Hampton working on a construction job. The driver, Micheal Safronov, 42, who has a Wellington, Florida, address, was said to be driving a 2003 Volkswagen Passat, which had a forged laminated temporary Florida license plate on it, leading to the arresting officer pulling the car over. The officer found the laminated temporary plate’s appearance suspicious, he said in the charging documents. When questioned by the officer, Safronov handed him a forged in-transit dealer certificate for the Volkswagen, police said. The officer then ran checks on both the certificate and the temporary plate with the Florida DMV, with both failing to show up as legal documents. In addition, a QR code on the document the officer was presented appeared to be connected to a fictitious Texas DMV website, the arrest report reads. The Volkswagen was impounded by East Hampton Village Police following the arrest. On Monday afternoon, Mykolaiv Marunchak, 44, of Fairfield, Connecticut, came to police headquarters with documentation that appeared to show that he was the owner, according to the criminal complaints, but those two documents also turned out to be false, the police said. “It’s my car,” Marunchak is quoted as telling police. He is also quoted as telling officers, “I have the title home in Connecticut,” and “I got the plate off Facebook.” Marunchak was placed under arrest and charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree, a felony, and in the third degree, a misdemeanor. The two men were held overnight and arraigned in East Hampton Town Justice Court where Justice Steven Tekulsky noted that the two men do not have prior contact with the criminal justice system and ordered them released unconditionally, with an April virtual return date to allow them time to each retain an attorney, which both said they would.
SPRINGS — Luis R. Prado Carpio, 48, of Springs, was arrested the afternoon of March 17 on a charge of criminal obstruction of breathing, a misdemeanor. Police said that during an altercation, Prado Carpio choked the other person involved, making it difficult for that person to breathe. He was held overnight and released the following morning after an order of protection on behalf of the alleged victim was issued during his arraignment in East Hampton Town Justice Court.
EAST HAMPTON VILLAGE — A Manhattan man visiting the East Hampton Library on Main Street reported to police that his bicycle had been stolen the morning of March 19. The man said he had bicycled to the library and left his bike leaning against a wood fence on the north side away from Main Street at about 10:30 that morning and noticed that it was gone at about noon. He described the bike as a maroon mountain bike but was unsure of the maker. He told police he did not want to press charges. Late that afternoon, the bike was returned to the library. An employee notified the police who notified the New York man that the bike was at the library for him to pick it up.
MONTAUK — A report of a physical altercation taking place between the owner of a South Edgemere Street property and a landscaper resulted in a police intervention the afternoon of Saint Patrick’s Day. According to police, by the time they arrived, the property owner and the landscaper had separated on their own after some pushing and shoving, the report says. The owner told police that he was unhappy with the work the landscaper was doing and told him to do it a different way. The landscaper responded that he did not work for the property owner but rather the owner of the landscaping company. The property owner then told the landscaper, according to the police report, that he owned the property and he had hired the landscaping company, so, therefore, the landscaper works for him. That is what seemed to set the pushing and shoving match between the two men off, according to the report. The property owner asked police to tell the landscaper he had to leave and to issue him a trespass warning, meaning that if he were to return, he would face possible arrest, which police did. The landscaper gathered his possessions and exited the property without issue, the police report states.
