Blows Off Probation, Does Jail Time

A 21-year-old man who has variously given his home address as Riverhead, Flanders, and points west, remained in jail Tuesday morning after turning himself in to East Hampton Town police March 14.

East Hampton Town Justice Lisa Rana had issued a bench warrant for Gregory Trent’s arrest after he failed to show for a court date that morning. There already was a bench warrant out for him from the Town of Southampton, where he had failed to appear on a couple of traffic matters.

Trent’s legal issues also include several reports from the probation department that he has failed to show up there for appointments and has failed drug tests at least twice, according to his court records. Suffolk County’s probation department has classified him as “non-compliant” for almost a year.

Rana sentenced him to probation and fined him on March 29, 2018, after he pleaded guilty to resisting arrest as a misdemeanor. The crime occurred during an incident in East Hampton Village in 2017. Driving a 2003 Dodge van, he made an illegal U-turn on Main Street near the intersection with Newtown Lane, leading to a traffic stop.

Trent was combative, police reported at the time, and fought being handcuffed when they attempted to arrest him on an unlicensed driving charge. Eventually, an officer deployed and used a Taser gun on Trent before he could be taken into custody. Trent’s driving privileges have been suspended since he was arrested by Southampton Town police in 2016 on multiple driving infractions, as well as a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge.

After being held overnight last week, he was arraigned again on Friday, March 15, by Rana, who set bail at $500. Trent was taken back to village headquarters on Cedar Street, and Southampton Town was contacted. When that police department elected not to pick Trent up on the traffic warrant, he was taken to county jail by a deputy sheriff.

He is due back in court on March 28 in East Hampton, where Rana could resentence him on the misdemeanor resisting arrest charge to up to one year in jail.

t.e@indyeastend.com