East End Notebook: Farm Blasted by Neighbor; Cop Honored

SOUTHAMPTON

International Manhunt Is on for Suspect in Nun's Death

Federal authorities are in the midst of an international manhunt for the suspected driver in the July 9, 2012, hit-and-run death of Sister Jacqueline Walsh, according to Newsday, which cites a law enforcement source in a report Monday.

Newsday reports that the suspect, Carlos Armando Ixpec-Chitay, is believed to have fled the country. The 30-year-old was known to frequent Water Mill and Riverhead, and authorities say he was behind the wheel of his employer's SUV when it fatally struck Sister Jackie, who was on a walk on Rose Hill Road in Water Mill. Sister Jackie, a 59-year-old pastoral associate at St. Edward the Confessor in Syosset, was staying at a retreat house with fellow members of the Sisters of Mercy.

EAST HAMPTON

Ace Detective Tina Giles Gets Top Honors

Tina Giles, a detective with the East Hampton Town Police Department, is being lauded for cracking one of the town's biggest sex abuse cases.

After a victim came forward in April claiming rape, Fidel Castro-Brito was arrested for the crime. But Giles had a feeling there was more to the case. "Her instincts took over and she knew there was more to it," Chief Ed Ecker said. "It was fantastic police work."

In late November, a Suffolk County grand injury handed down a 70-count felony indictment related to criminal sex acts against three young victims.

"It was a pretty a chilling case," Ecker said. "Even in the DA's office, or with detectives who have been doing this for a long time, no one had ever seen anything like this before," he said.

WESTHAMPTON-HAMPTON BAYS

DEC to Inform Public on Speonk Plume Decision

A decision by the state Department of Environmental Conservation not to further remediate a toxic plume that runs a few miles under homes and businesses in Speonk will be vetted before the public, according to Aphrodite Montalvo, a spokeswoman for the DEC.

The meeting comes at the request of both the Group for the East End and Assemblyman Fred Thiele after they got wind of the decision, which is based on a report submitted to the DEC.

Montalvo explained that after reading the report, the DEC "determined that no one was drinking the contaminated groundwater and there were no residences impacted by vapor intrusion such that a mitigation system is needed."

The DEC was also not able to ever identify the original source of the plume, she said.

RIVERHEAD

Public Input Sought on Homeless Sex Offender Trailers

When Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone missed a Jan. 1 deadline to shutter two controversial homeless sex offender trailers in Riverside and Westhampton, County Legislator Jay Schneiderman vowed to host a community meeting to let residents' voices be heard.

To that end, Schneiderman has announced an East End Community Meeting seeking public comment on the county's homeless sex offender trailer program. The meeting will be held on Jan. 30. at 7 p.m. at the Riverhead County Center, in the Maxine Postal Legislative Auditorium.

NORTH FORK

 a vegetable farm that has locations in Cutchogue and now on Middle Road in Calverton, from the New York State Regional Economic Development Council toward more machinery and equipment to expand its vegetable processing and packaging line at the Calverton location. The farm is one of two dozen projects across the First State Senate District to receive grant funding, but some readers questioned the grant after Patch published the story of the awards last month. 

Paulette Satur is a member of the economic advisory council, and for years now, the farm has been the subject of neighborhood conflict, located close to residential houses on the other side of the street on Alvah’s Lane in Cutchogue. Though a dispute which made it to the courts involving dust, diesel pollution and noise created by the loading and unloading of large refrigerated trucks on Alvah's Lane has simmered down — the trucks have been relocated to the Calverton facility — another neighbor is now fighting to get a diesel generator removed or relocated.