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After spending almost a week in custody, a Stratford, Connecticut man, Nickenson Petit, 40, was slated to be released Wednesday after being cleared of felony drug possession charges, according to Brian DeSesa, the attorney who represented Petit during his arraignment on Saturday in East Hampton Town Justice Court.
During that arraignment, Petit had stated that the contents of a plastic bag that was under a seat in his car was not the methamphetamine derivative MDMA, commonly known as molly or ecstasy, but was, instead, cooking supplies.
According to DeSesa, after being tested by the county’s crime lab, the contents of the bag came back with a negative result for the presence of a controlled substance.
Petit was being held in county jail in Yaphank as of Wednesday morning after being arrested last Thursday evening by East Hampton Village Police on a charge of possession of a controlled substance in the second-degree, a felony, following a traffic stop on Montauk Highway. Police said he was in possession of more than two ounces of MDMA.
During his arraignment, Petit, 40, disregarded warnings from both DeSesa and the judge, Justice David Filer, against speaking about the case. He was told that his words were being recorded and could be used against him in the future.
Petit stated at that point that the substance in question was not a “controlled” substance and that it was important to him for religious use. He also said the substance contained “cooking ingredients.”
MDMA is a hallucinogenic derivative of methamphetamine. While popular as a “party drug,” it is considered extremely dangerous by both law enforcement and the medical community. Police had used a mobile Regent drug test initially, which came back positive for the drug. That result, DeSesa said Wednesday morning over the phone, was in error.
Petit, who has two prior felony convictions in his past, also said during his arraignment that he has never been connected criminally with drugs before. He said that he does not “associate” with drug users or dealers. Neither of his prior felony convictions were drug-related.
Petit faced a sentence of up to life in prison.
He was ordered remanded without bail by Filer, due to the two prior felony convictions. Bail in such cases can only be set in state court.
Before Suffolk County sheriff’s deputies could pick him up from Village Police headquarters to transport him to the Suffolk County jail, he was taken by ambulance to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital as a precautionary measure, according to Village Police Detective Sergeant Jennifer Dunn. Dunn would not disclose the specifics of the decision to take Petit to the hospital. However, she did say that it was not a “life threatening” situation.
A Village Police officer remained with Petit for the trip to the hospital. He was later discharged and taken to the county jail in Yaphank, where he was Wednesday morning.
According to Dunn, Petit was driving a Chevrolet van east on Montauk Highway west of Main Street when he was pulled over. The van, she said, was uninsured, uninspected and had no license plates, leading to the stop.
In addition, Dunn said, Petit does not have a valid driver’s license, with multiple suspensions in his past, leading to his initial arrest on a charge of aggravated unlicensed driving in the third-degree, a misdemeanor.
With the possible exception of some charges under vehicle and traffic law, DeSesa said he expects all charges to be dropped.
Initially, Petit was charged with possession in the first degree, based on the weight of the package. However, Assistant District Attorney Tak Kim said during the Saturday video arraignment of Petit that the package weighed slightly less than the nine ounces police originally believed it weighed, leading to the reduced charge.
Kim also responded to Petit’s claim that the substance was not a legally controlled drug, stating that the district attorney’s office was expediting testing of the contents of the package. That test has apparently cleared Petit.
After his arrest last Thursday evening, Petit was taken to Village Police headquarters on Cedar Street. There, police said, Petit was extremely uncooperative, refusing to be fingerprinted. Because of his refusal, police could not process the arrest, meaning he could not be arraigned Friday morning, as would normally have been the case.
East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky, who was on the bench Friday, waited all day, until 4 p.m., for Petit to consent to the fingerprinting, but Petit refused, police said. It was only after 4 p.m. that Petit consented to be fingerprinted. That raised a second issue during the arraignment. Normally, a defendant being held without the possibility of bail on a felony charge must be either indicted by a grand jury or released from custody within a prescribed time limit. In Petit’s case, that would have been Wednesday evening.
However, Kim requested an extension of that time limit, because, he said, Petit had intentionally delayed the process. Kim asked for an additional 24 hours to be granted before the indictment deadline, meaning the end of day Thursday.
DeSesa, who was on hand as part of the county’s program to ensure legal representation for defendants during weekend arraignments, argued against that request, saying that that decision should be held off until Wednesday, when Petit’s retained attorney from Legal Aid could argue the case.
That argument is now moot, according to DeSesa.
