Springs Man Charged With DWI For Third Time

The third time is never the charm when it comes to being charged with driving while intoxicated. A Springs man, Jose Urizar-Reyes, 30, faces multiple felony charges after being arrested by East Hampton town police the night of February 11.

Police said they received a call reporting an erratic driver in a 2010 Toyota headed west on Montauk Highway in the eastbound lane in Amagansett. The caller then reported that the Toyota had pulled into the parking lot in front of Chen’s Garden and Chiquita Latina on the southside of the highway. An officer found Urizar-Reyes sitting behind the wheel of the Toyota, police said, with the engine on, and the car in park in a handicapped parking space.

He appeared intoxicated, and failed sobriety tests, police reported. Urizar-Reyes was charged with DWI based on the officer’s observations and was taken to police headquarters, where a breath test produced a reading indicating the amount of alcohol in his system was high enough to trigger another DWI charge, this one at the aggravated level. He was also charged with unlicensed driving.

These charges are at the felony level because, in 2016, Urizar-Reyes was convicted twice of drunken driving, once in East Hampton Town Justice Court, then in Southampton Town Justice Court.

During his arraignment the next morning, East Hampton Town Justice Lisa Rana told Urizar-Reyes he is not eligible for any kind of temporary hardship license, because his prior convictions happened within the last five years.

Another Springs man who is facing a felony charge after being arrested by town police is Galo Gustavo Plaza-Tacuri, 25. Plaza-Tacuri allegedly smashed the rear and rear driver’s side windows on a 2008 Honda Civic parked outside a Harbor View Avenue residence a little before noon February 18. Police said Plaza-Tacuri is involved in an ongoing dispute with the owner of the Honda. The cost of repairing the damage was estimated to be $800. The crime of criminal mischief for allegedly damaging property valued at $250 or more is a felony.

Plaza-Tacuri was arrested after police investigated the incident the morning of February 21. He was released the next day after being arraigned in East Hampton Town Justice Court February 22, but not until an order of protection had been issued for the alleged victim that requires that Plaza-Tacuri have no contact with the man.

t.e@indyeastend.com