Crimes Nearby: Bookkeeper Gets 30 Days for Embezzling $442K

Editor's Note: The following information was provided by police departments on the East End. An arrest does not imply a conviction.

Recent notable arrests and crimes elsewhere on the East End:

EAST HAMPTON

A bookkeeper who admitted to stealing nearly half a million dollars 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.

RIVERHEAD 

• Riverhead police arrested a teen and charged him with a masked burglary at an apartment on Doctors Path Friday night.

On Tuesday, Riverhead police charged Jvon Creighton, 17, of Riverhead, with one count of burglary in the first degree, a felony. Creighton was also charged with one count of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree and one count of false personation, both misdemeanors. Police said Creighton provided a false name at the time of his arrest and had in his possession a small quantity of oxycodone without a prescription.

The arrest followed a report on Friday night of masked intruders who allegedly forced their way into a woman's apartment and robbed her at gun and knifepoint, police said. However, no charges were filed regarding weapons possession, police said.

A second suspect is still being sought after the incident. Anyone with information is asked to call the Riverhead police at 631-727-4500 or Suffolk County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.

• A Flanders man was charged with driving while intoxicated with an 8-year-old child in the car early Tuesday morning. According to Southampton Town police, on Tuesday at approximately 12:10 a.m., Flanders resident Cristobal Espinoza, 32, was charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated under Leandra's Law, a felony, and endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.

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.

• 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.

• 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, a misdemeanor, 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.