6-28 Main Newsletter

Accused of Kidnapping and Robbery, Petty Strikes a Deal

June 28, 2025

June 28, 2025

Today: Rain expected early with clouds later, high 77, winds south at 5 to 10 miles per hour. Tonight: Passing showers early, low 69. Tomorrow: Mostly sunny, high 84, winds west at 5 to 10 m.p.h. Sunset tonight: 8:24. Sunrise tomorrow: 5:17. Three Mile Harbor tides today: High, 1:02 p.m.; low, 7:07 p.m.

Supreme Court Justice Timothy P. Mazzei approved a plea bargain on Wednesday morning in the case of Darius Petty, 35, an East Hampton man accused of kidnapping and robbing three young men at knifepoint in the parking lot of the East Hampton Town Senior Center in September.

Bettina Neel

There have been 12 cases filed in Suffolk County Supreme Court against Michael O’Sullivan and his L.L.C. Hampton Dream Properties, with plaintiffs, including several in East Hampton Town, alleging that they were the victims of a murky real estate scheme that defrauded them of millions of dollars.

By Christopher Gangemi

The attorney for the driver in a fatal Springs accident on June 15 confirmed on June 19 that the Suffolk County district attorney’s office had notified her that it would be convening a grand jury on upgraded charges the following day.

By Bettina Neel

The last few years have presented challenges the Springs Food Pantry’s founders could not have anticipated when it was first established. More than 600 families are now registered to receive the assistance it provides, and an average of 355 families are served each week.

By Bettina Neel

One of the essential roles of religion, Rabbi Jan Uhrbach of the Bridge Shul in Bridgehampton said this week, is to “help us hold onto our humanity, and remind us of the higher values that go beyond money and power and position and all of those things, in a time when the values that I hold dear are not only being violated, they’re being rejected as values.”

By Christopher Walsh

The 2025 valedictorians and salutatorians at East Hampton and Pierson High Schools already have résumés that put most of us to shame, and they’re just getting started. Along with their academic successes, they are standout musicians, athletes, and volunteers.

By Carissa Katz

While conditions had improved by Monday, last weekend, the Surfrider Foundation’s Eastern Long Island chapter, which partners with Concerned Citizens of Montauk and the Peconic Baykeeper in sampling and analyzing local waters, canceled an International Surfing Day meetup that was to happen that day at Ditch Plain Beach, citing alarmingly high levels of Enterococcus bacteria in the water.

By Christopher Walsh

A dual-propeller airplane crash-landed at East Hampton Town Airport just before 8 p.m. Sunday, closing the airport for several hours. The pilot, Curtis Doupe, was the only person in the plane and was not injured.

By Christopher Gangemi

The East Hampton Village Board was criticized at its meeting last week for not doing enough to communicate two new laws that have been ensnaring landscapers and contractors since the middle of May. One requires service workers to register annually with the village at a cost of $250. The other, a noise ordinance, shortens hours for certain landscaping and construction activities between May 15 and Sept. 15.


By Christopher Gangemi

East Hampton Town’s Democratic Party candidates launched their 2025 campaign on Monday with a gathering marked by gloomy assessments of Democrats’ status at the national level mixed with encouraging signs of resistance. At home, they enjoy a supermajority on the town board and among the town trustees, with some incumbents running unopposed for re-election.

By Christopher Walsh

The East Hampton Town Trustees will write a letter to the town board supporting the purchase of two parcels fronting Georgica Cove by the Peconic Land Trust, which is at present in contract, and the simultaneous sale of an easement to the town and to East Hampton Village to ensure their preservation in perpetuity.

By Christopher Walsh

The East Hampton Village Board voted to approve a $30.7 million budget for the next fiscal year that includes a tax increase of 1.28 percent for village residents.

By Christopher Walsh

A new gymnasium and a marine biology wet lab may be in the cards for the Sag Harbor School District. According to Jeff Nichols, the district superintendent, the plans are still in their early days, but he hopes to put a bond referendum for the project to a public vote by the fall.

By Denis Hartnett

The Children’s Museum of the East End celebrated the grand opening of a brand-new playground — a goal the museum’s co-presidents, Liz Bard and Lara Sweeney, have been working toward for four years.

By Bettina Neel

There are scholar-athletes and then there are scholar-athletes. Benson Edman, an East Hampton High School senior who effectively swept the athletic and academic awards given out here recently to the class of 2025, is probably as good an example of the term as you can find. 

By Jack graves

For the first time in its 46-year history, Saturday’s Shelter Island 10K was won by a local runner, Ryan Fowkes, a 24-year-old East Hamptoner and Virginia Tech grad student who is making a name for himself nationally in long-distance running. The race’s female competitors were topped by Penelope Greene of Noyac, a SUNY Geneseo all-American, who finished seventh over all in the field of 800-plus.

By Jack Graves

The iconic movie that premiered in the summer of 1975 and scared swimmers away from the water will once again come to life when Capt. Pat Mundus, daughter of the famed shark hunter Capt. Frank Mundus, will speak at the Cutchogue Library on the 50th anniversary of the film.


By Jon M. Diat

Hemerocallis may be an unfamiliar term, but the garden adjacent to Clinton Academy once bore the name. This photo shows the gate to the garden some two decades after its establishment in 1941.

By Julia Tyson

It was a performance of "The Weight" with Nancy Atlas at the Surf Lodge that launched Lynn Blue and her band into the top tier of East End rockers.

By Christopher Walsh

Also in the News