A previously convicted drug dealer from Flanders, who had his sentence vacated in 2012 due to the illicit actions of a now-defunct undercover unit of the Southampton Town Police Department, was found hiding inside his home on Monday evening, hours after authorities said he punched and tried to strangle his girlfriend, who was in the seventh month of pregnancy.Mohammed Proctor, 38, was arrested by Town Police and arraigned Tuesday in Southampton Town Justice Court on charges of first-degree assault and strangulation, both felonies, according to Southampton Town Police Detective Sergeant Lisa Costa.He entered not guilty pleas to both charges and was being held without bail at the Suffolk County Jail in Riverside as of Wednesday, according to Robert Clifford, a spokesman for Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota.Mr. Proctor’s pregnant girlfriend arrived at Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead at 10:30 a.m. Monday and “was immediately rushed into surgery to save the life of her unborn child,” according to a press release issued by Det. Sgt. Costa on Wednesday. The child, a girl, was delivered and then transported to Stony Brook University Hospital, where she remains in critical condition, according to authorities.The mother suffered “extensive life-threatening injuries” and also remains hospitalized as of Wednesday morning, according to Det. Sgt. Costa.Police spent the next several hours searching for Mr. Proctor, who was ultimately found hiding in his Flanders home with his 19-month-old son, who was safe and unharmed, police said.Town Police found Mr. Proctor in his home in Flanders on Monday evening after what Newsday described as “a daylong search by patrol officers, detectives and Westhampton Beach Village Police.” Westhampton Beach Police Chief Trevor Gonce said Wednesday morning that his officers were not involved in the search or arrest.Mr. Proctor is one of several people arrested by the Town Police’s Street Crimes Unit, and ultimately released three years ago, after details of the unit’s questionable practices were made public.Mr. Proctor was arrested in April 2010 by the Street Crimes Unit on weapons and drug possession charges after police entered his home on Riverleigh Avenue in Riverside with a search warrant and conducted what was later determined to be an illegal body cavity search, which yielded a bag of cocaine stashed in his rectum. At the time, police said he used his underage son as a lookout.Later that year, Mr. Proctor filed an excessive force lawsuit against the Town Police seeking $50 million in damages. His lawsuit was dismissed in U.S. District Court in 2013.In May 2012, Mr. Spota exonerated Mr. Proctor, citing the lack of credibility of Eric Sickles, the Town Police officer who originally arrested him, because of drug dependency while working with the Street Crimes Unit.Shortly after taking over the top position with the Town Police, then-Chief William Wilson began dismantling the Street Crimes Unit in May 2011. It was disbanded later that year.
Kyle Campbell on Aug 5, 2015