Crime & Safety

Crimes Nearby: Teen Charged with Sexual Assault at Wainscott Rehab Facility

The 18-year-old male victim underwent surgery after assault on Sunday, police say.

The following information was supplied by the East End police departments and the Suffolk County District Attorney's office. A criminal charge is only an accusation and does not indicate guilt.

EAST HAMPTON

A 16-year-old from Rockville Centre sexually assaulted another teen at Phoenix House Academy in Wainscott on Sunday, East Hampton Town police said Monday morning. 

Police responded to the drug rehabilitation and treatment center for adolescent males on Industrial Road — not far from police headquarters — after a report of a victim of violence at about 5:10 p.m. They found an 18-year-old male victim had been assaulted. East Hampton Village Ambulance Association transported him to Southampton Hospital, where he underwent surgery and has been admitted. 

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Joseph M. Cardinali was charged with aggravated sexual abuse in the first-degree, a felony, and third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, on Sunday. He was arraigned in East Hampton Town Justice Court Monday morning. 

RIVERHEAD

• Police have released two photos of men they said were involved in the armed robbery of Route 58 Hess station in Riverhead in September.

Suffolk County Crime Stoppers and Riverhead Police are asking for the public’s help to identify and locate the two men.

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According to police, two black men entered Hess, located at 870 Old Country Road, on Sept. 13 at 10:30 p.m. and robbed an employee at gunpoint. The men fled with $200 in cash and $100 in Newport cigarettes.

Suffolk County Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to an arrest. Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.

• A Riverhead man was convicted Thursday of all charges in an 11-count indictment related to physical and emotional abuse of his girlfriend in August, 2012, Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said.

According to the DA, Travis James, 32, choked and briefly smothered his girlfriend during the altercation.

James, who was convicted two-and-a-half years ago of violating orders of protection, is a “serial abuser” who the DA said deserves state prison time for his behavior.

James was convicted on two counts of aggravated criminal contempt, a felony, which carries a minimum of two to four years and a maximum of three and a half to seven years. He was convicted on three counts of criminal contempt in the first degree, a felony, one count of criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation, a misdemeanor, three counts of criminal contempt in the second degree, a misdemeanor, harassment in the second degree, a violation, and one charge of aggravated criminal contempt, a felony.

According to Spota, if he gets the maximum sentence for the felony charges, James faces anywhere between nine and a half to 19 years behind bars.

James is incarcerated in lieu of $250,000 cash bail in the Suffolk County Correctional Facility in Riverside.

NORTH FORK

• A street brawl involving a knife heated up again in the emergency room at Eastern Long Island Hospital early Sunday, leaving three men and hospital staffers injured, police said. According to Southold Town police, a 36-year-old Greenport man, 24-year-old Shelter Island man, and a 33-year-old Southold man, were involved in a fight that broke out in the emergency room of Eastern Long Island Hospital at 12:31 a.m. 

The three men had gone to ELIH for injuries sustained in an earlier brawl in the Adams Street parking lot in Greenport, at about 12:15 a.m., police said. Upon arrival at the emergency room, another fight broke out among the men, police said. Hospital staff sustained minor injuries while breaking up the fight.

Police said it appeared that a knife "or similar type cutting instrument" was used by at least one of those involved in the Adams Street altercation. Two of the men sustained serious lacerations and were treated at ELIH, police said; a third man, who was injured seriously, was transferred to Stony Brook University Hospital.

Police said no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Southold Police Department at (631) 765-2600.


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