From Newsday:
A Southampton man on his way back from an offshore fishing trip with his 7-year-old son was arrested in Shinnecock Canal for boating while intoxicated, the Suffolk County sheriff's office said. Joseph Longnecker, 42, had been fishing about two miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean with his son, William, and a friend, Martin Croke, 42, sheriff's office Chief of Staff Alan R. Otto said yesterday. After observing Longnecker pilot his 30-foot vessel back toward shore on Saturday night, Coast Guard officers manning a BWI checkpoint at the southern end of the canal contacted the sheriff's office, saying he appeared intoxicated. Sheriff's deputies, who were conducting checks at the north end as part of a joint law enforcement agency crackdown on drunken boaters, administered a field sobriety test and a portable breath analysis. Longnecker failed both tests and was arrested and charged with two counts of boating while intoxicated, both misdemeanors that are punishable by up to a year in jail, Otto said. Under a new state law that went into effect last week, drunken boaters are held to the same penalties as drunken drivers. A subsequent test measured Longnecker's blood-alcohol level at .10 percent, above the state threshold of .08 percent. Longnecker had no prior arrests and was released after posting $150 bail at Southampton Town Court yesterday, Otto said. Other boaters cited for BWI this weekend in Suffolk County include Thomas Dean, 51, of Shirley, and Timothy J. Annabel, 47, of Mattituck, according to Suffolk County Police Marine Bureau and Southold Town Police. Dean was arrested Friday night in waters off Mastic Beach; Annabel was stopped for speeding and arrested in Greenport Harbor. The checkpoints this weekend were part of a countywide boating safety initiative started in 2003 to address boating fatalities, Capt. Bill Read of the Suffolk County Police Marine Bureau said yesterday.
The program has been "pretty successful" in Suffolk County, Read said. "There hasn't been an alcohol-related fatality in Suffolk in three years now, and we attribute that to increased enforcement," he said.
A Southampton man on his way back from an offshore fishing trip with his 7-year-old son was arrested in Shinnecock Canal for boating while intoxicated, the Suffolk County sheriff's office said. Joseph Longnecker, 42, had been fishing about two miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean with his son, William, and a friend, Martin Croke, 42, sheriff's office Chief of Staff Alan R. Otto said yesterday. After observing Longnecker pilot his 30-foot vessel back toward shore on Saturday night, Coast Guard officers manning a BWI checkpoint at the southern end of the canal contacted the sheriff's office, saying he appeared intoxicated. Sheriff's deputies, who were conducting checks at the north end as part of a joint law enforcement agency crackdown on drunken boaters, administered a field sobriety test and a portable breath analysis. Longnecker failed both tests and was arrested and charged with two counts of boating while intoxicated, both misdemeanors that are punishable by up to a year in jail, Otto said. Under a new state law that went into effect last week, drunken boaters are held to the same penalties as drunken drivers. A subsequent test measured Longnecker's blood-alcohol level at .10 percent, above the state threshold of .08 percent. Longnecker had no prior arrests and was released after posting $150 bail at Southampton Town Court yesterday, Otto said. Other boaters cited for BWI this weekend in Suffolk County include Thomas Dean, 51, of Shirley, and Timothy J. Annabel, 47, of Mattituck, according to Suffolk County Police Marine Bureau and Southold Town Police. Dean was arrested Friday night in waters off Mastic Beach; Annabel was stopped for speeding and arrested in Greenport Harbor. The checkpoints this weekend were part of a countywide boating safety initiative started in 2003 to address boating fatalities, Capt. Bill Read of the Suffolk County Police Marine Bureau said yesterday.
The program has been "pretty successful" in Suffolk County, Read said. "There hasn't been an alcohol-related fatality in Suffolk in three years now, and we attribute that to increased enforcement," he said.