Crime & Safety

Crimes Nearby: Man Charged With Performing Sex Acts On A Child

In other crimes nearby, a man allegedly led police on a high-speed chase.

Editor's Note: The following information was supplied by various town police departments. A criminal charge is only an accusation and does not indicate guilt.

WESTHAMPTON-HAMPTON BAYS -  

• A victim of a stabbing that occurred in Speonk on Friday night showed up on the doorstep of the Westhampton Beach Village Police Department around 9 p.m.

According to Lieutenant Trevor Gonce, an ambulance transported the male victim to Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead. The incident was referred to Southampton Town police since it occurred within that jurisdiction. To read the full story, click here. http://patch.com/A-0VpZ

• Carl Graves, 53, of Riverhead, was arrested and charged with failing to register as a sex offender, a felony, after he was picked up by police in Amityville for allegedly drinking in public on Dec. 31. He was then turned over to Southampton Town police’s custody. His arraignment information was not immediately available.

• A 33-year-old Hampton Bays man was arrested Friday evening for a sex crime that occurred last winter with a child, according to police.

Southampton Town police said Steven G. Giarraputo performed sex acts with a boy younger than 17 years old on March 1, 2012, in Hampton Bays.

Giarraputo was charged with sodomy in the third degree, a felony, and endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.

NORTH FORK

• Graeme Baker, 21, of Orient, was arrested charged with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance on Jan. 5 at 2:26 a.m., following a traffic stop. Southold Town police said they stopped Baker for a traffic violation on Route 25 in Greenport and found him to be operating with a suspended license. During his arrest, Baker was also found to be in possession of two glass vials containing a white powder which tested positive as cocaine, police said. He was transported to police headquarters in Peconic, processed and released on bail for a later court date.

SOUTHAMPTON

• Nakai N. Bess, 27, of Southampton, who is out of prison on parole, was arrested Dec. 19 at 4:02 p.m., four days after police say he led officers on a high speed chase.

Police said that on Dec. 15 at 1:58 a.m., Bess was driving 70 miles per hour in a 1998 Honda Civic eastbound on Hill Street, a 25-mile-per-hour zone.

"When police attempted to stop Mr. Bess, he refused and led police on a pursuit for approximately 12 minutes breaking numerous vehicle and traffic laws as well as endangering public safety," stated Det. Sgt. Herman Lamison in a press release. Police broke pursuit after identifying Bess as the driver, Lamison said.

Bess was charged with unlawfully fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the third degree, reckless driving and reckless endangerment in the second degree, all misdemeanors, as well as violating his parole. Police said Bess was sent to the Suffolk County Correctional Facility in Riverside to await a parole hearing.

According to state inmate records, Bess served two years and nine months at the Riverview Correctional Facility, a medium security prison in Ogdensburg, and was released on parole April 15, 2011. He was serving time for attempted conspiracy in the second degree, attempted criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, all felonies, records state.

• A Manhattan man reported to Southampton Town police Dec. 31 that a total of nine Ferrari and Porsche rims, including some tires, were stolen from the garage of a Southampton home he owns and had rented out between May 2011 and May 2012. The rims and tires are valued at $11,000.

•  A Southampton man reported Jan. 5 that on Dec. 28 someone charged $2,000 on his Best Buy account at the Patchogue store. The man said he was alerted to the fraudulent charge when the creditor asked him if he would like to raise his credit limit.


EAST HAMPTON

A bookkeeper who admitted to stealing nearly half a million from an East Hampton family business will spend the next 30 days in jail, despite being in her last trimester of pregnancy.

Kerri Dewhirst said she was sorry for what she had done — embezzling a documented amount of $442,000 from Schenck Fuels Inc. during the two years she worked there.

At her sentencing in Suffolk County Criminal Court on Wednesday, her attorney handed over a $60,000 check from his escrow account to begin the restitution process. Free on $250,000 bail since a grand jury indictment in May 2011, she was taken away to the county jail.

As part of her plea arrangement, she agreed to pay $2,000 per month during five years of probation. If she misses even one payment, Judge James C. Hudson said he could revoke the agreement and re-sentence her to 5 to 15 years in prison.


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