Police: Man Threatened Customer With Mallet

A chance encounter, followed by an alleged threat, led Sag Harbor Village police to arrest a Hampton Bays man on a felony criminal contempt charge Friday, February 22.

It was about noon, according to police, and Tristan Tutching was at work at the service station on Hampton Road. “That’s what I was doing when I was confronted,” Tutching told Sag Harbor Village Justice Lisa Rana, during his Saturday morning arraignment.

According to the police, a customer, Justin Napolillo, started walking towards the retail store at the station to buy a beverage. That is when the two men saw each other. Napolillo told police he didn’t initially recognize Tutching, and continued to walk toward him. Napolillo said that Tutching picked up a rubber mallet and threatened him with it. There currently is a court order in place that requires Tutching to stay away from, and not to threaten, Napolillo in any way. Sag Harbor Village police charged Tutching with a felony, for allegedly violating that court order, as well as a
misdemeanor charge of menacing.

The court order stems from an incident from May 2018, when the two men had an altercation outside Napolillo’s Amagansett residence. Napolillo was carrying a shotgun at the time, East Hampton Town police reported last year, while Tutching was behind the wheel of a 2002 Volvo. Tutching struck Napolillo with the car, though he told police at the time, he was only going about 10 miles per hour. Napolillo dropped the shotgun, which was not loaded, and Tutching got out of his car and picked it up, then threw it to the ground as well.

After East Hampton Town police sorted everything out last May, they arrested Tutching on multiple charges, including two felonies: burglary (Tutching had entered Napolillo’s house to retrieve a woman both men were acquainted with) and assault with a weapon, namely, the car.

In December, that case was moved to County Court, where the felonies were dropped. Instead, Tutching pleaded guilty to charges of misdemeanor assault and trespassing. Tutching is scheduled to be sentenced on those charges in county court April 4, after New York State Justice Mark Cohen reviews a report on Tutching being prepared by the probation department.

The Sag Harbor arrest could complicate all that. Tutching also has a prior misdemeanor conviction on a charge of menacing stemming from a 2015 incident in Southampton. Tutching’s father was in the courtroom Saturday morning, and agreed to post the $1000 bail set by Justice Rana, and Tutching was released, now looking at a potentially thorny future in court.

t.e@indyeastend.com