Letters

In February 2021, the New York Appellate Court issued a two-pronged decision: They held for oceanfront homeowners along Napeague, who claimed ownership of a stretch of sand beach, and they also held against the homeowners who had asked the court to extinguish a reservation that granted access to the public to fish on the same beach. The court said they own the beach, but the public has a right to use the beach, akin to a property easement.

Not satisfied, the homeowners went to court and asked for an injunction in June 2021 requiring the Town of East Hampton to actively prohibit and prevent the driving of all vehicles on their beach. They succeeded and received an injunction that now required the Town Police to actively protect their property from trespassers.

I don’t know of any property owners in East Hampton who receive that type of public service.

When local commercial fishermen drove on the beach soon after in protest, the homeowners refused to cooperate with the Town Police and file a complaint for trespass. When the fishermen drove on the beach a second time in October 2021, the homeowners again refused to cooperate with police. The police, in an effort to abide by the very injunction that the homeowners requested, wrote the summonses anyway.

When the trespass cases came to court, the homeowners adamantly refused to cooperate with the prosecutor and appear in court. The charges were dismissed.

All this injunctive kerfuffle, all on the taxpayers’ dime. The police, the court, the district attorney, etc.

The homeowners, still not satisfied, went to court and asked that the town and Trustees be held in contempt of court for, you guessed it, failing to abide by the injunction that the homeowners requested.

You just can’t make this shit up.

The town and Trustees were held in criminal and civil contempt and ordered to pay nearly $1 million in the homeowners’ legal fees and additional fines — and, yes, paid presumably by you, the taxpayers.

The homeowners steadfastly refuse to accept the tools available to all other citizens when dealing with a trespass complaint: call the police and file a complaint.

Two tiers of justice.

Daniel G. Rodgers, Esq.

Southampton