East Hampton Village Police arrested a village employee and charged him with six felonies after detectives identified him as the person who mopped paint on a Village Police car and several other sites around the village during the overnight hours of August 10.
Jean Pierre Hernandez has been a part-time employee of the village for three years, police said, working on the village’s sanitation crew that empties garbage cans in the downtown and village beaches.
After a tip from another village employee, detectives used surveillance camera footage from around the village to confirm Hernandez as the culprit, East Hampton Village Police Sergeant Jennifer Dunn said.
On the morning of August 11, light blue paint was found brushed across one entire side of a Village Police vehicle, on a sign in front of the East Hampton Village Emergency Services Building, a bus stop shelter, the Hook Mill, and the exteriors of a smattering of seemingly randomly chosen businesses in the downtown.
Hernandez, 32, was arrested on Friday, October 8, at his home in Hampton Bays. He has been charged with two counts of criminal mischief in the second degree and four counts of criminal mischief in the third degree, all of which are felonies.
Dunn said that Hernandez has offered no motive for the vandalism spree and offered no statement to police after his arrest. He was released on his own recognizance with an order to return to court at a later date.
Michael Wright on Oct 12, 2022