East Hampton Town: Drunken Boating Charges

A hair stylist to the stars was arrested by East Hampton Town police on Saturday evening, September 29, charged with drunken boating, after crashing into another boat in Three Mile Harbor, police said. The other boat involved was being piloted by East Hampton Town’s Highway Superintendent, Steve Lynch.

         “It was scary,” Lynch said Sunday. According to the police, Julien Farel, 50, whose client list includes Ivanka Trump, Kate Moss, and Cynthia Nixon, was piloting a 24-foot 2002 Sea Ray power boat outbound from Gardiner’s Marina at an excessive speed near buoy 32 in the harbor when he broadsided the starboard bow of the inbound boat being operated by Lynch.

         “He was at cruising speed in his boat,” Lynch said of Farel. The accident occurred in a no-wake zone where the speed limit is five miles per hour.

         “We didn’t see you,” Lynch said Farel told him immediately after the accident. According to the police report filled out by an East Hampton harbormaster, the boat Lynch was operating suffered a cracked starboard bow at the “nose of the rub rail,” with repairs estimated at $2000. Farel’s fiberglass inboard power boat suffered a five-foot scrape, with repairs estimated at $1000.

         Lynch said that Farel, who took his boat back to Gardiner’s Marina after the accident, acknowledged that he was a novice boat operator. The harbormaster’s report notes that Farel has under 100 hours piloting experience. Police caught up with French-born Farel at Gardiner’s Marina. He appeared drunk, they said, and failed sobriety tests. Neither Farel nor his wife, Suelyn Farel, were hurt in the accident. The same was true for Lynch. “Nobody got hurt. That’s the important thing,” Lynch said.

         Placed under arrest on misdemeanor charges of boating while intoxicated and reckless boating by speeding, Farel was taken to police headquarters. There, he was given a breath test. Police said he did not blow into the tube hard enough to determine the actual level of alcohol in his system, but even with an insufficient sample of breath, police still recorded a reading over the .08 level that defines intoxication.

         He was represented by Carl Irace for his arraignment Sunday morning. Irace entered not guilty pleas to the charges for Farel. Irace cited the fact that, besides Farel’s residence in Trump World Tower on the United Nations Plaza, he and his wife also own a house in Northwest Woods. Justice Stephen Tekulsky agreed to release Farel without bail and with an October 18 return date.