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Suffolk County Police Department

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Joseph DiSclafani mugshot from SCPD

Police arrested a suspect in a Centereach bank robbery on Wednesday, more than a month after a man in dark clothing held the place up.

The Suffolk County Police Department said detectives relied on video surveillance and public tips through Crime Stoppers to identify the suspect, 48-year-old Centereach resident Joseph DiSclafani. Police allege he is the one who robbed the People’s United Bank on Middle Country Road on the morning of June 26, walking into the bank and passing a teller a note demanding cash.

Attorney information for DiSclafani, who was charged with third-degree robbery, was not immediately available.

Police said after the teller gave the suspect cash, he fled on foot in his dark-colored baseball cap, black T-shirt, dark jeans and sunglasses.

At the time of the robbery, police described the man as white with a heavy build, between 45 and 50 years old and about 5 feet 7 inches tall.

Once detectives from the SCPD’s Pattern Crime Unit identified DiSclafani as a suspect, they placed him under surveillance, police said. They arrested him Wednesday without incident and he was scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday.

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Debate focuses on bar fights downtown, narcotics uptown

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Residents and village officials butted heads with a police lieutenant on Monday night, debating the level of coverage officers provide in Port Jefferson.

The downtown commercial district, with its numerous bars and restaurants, is busy on summer nights, particularly on the weekend. Village officials have lobbied over the years to increase Suffolk County police presence downtown during those peak times, and to have more bodies in the uptown area, which sees criminal activity such as drug sales and has a consistent homeless population.

Lt. Donato Mignone said at the village board meeting Monday that there are additional officers patrolling Port Jefferson on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, pointing out that the village gets more police coverage relative to its number of police incidents. Mignone said of the 7,800 incidents the Suffolk County Police Department’s 6th Precinct handled in July, 385 of them were in Port Jefferson.

While he agreed the village deserves more attention than it gets, the department is working with limited resources and “you want to be wise with your manpower.”

But Trustee Larry LaPointe argued, “If you’re not here, there is no incident to report. If a tree falls in the woods and nobody’s there to hear it, the tree didn’t fall. That’s what’s happening in this village.”

The trustee called for more police coverage.

“There’s too much violence downtown,” LaPointe said.

The lieutenant said he would pass on the village’s concerns to his superiors. He added, “I absolutely understand, I agree, I commiserate.”

Later in the meeting, after Mignone left, LaPointe said the village might take its fight to a higher level, like the county executive’s office, if things don’t change.

“It’s their job to keep our community safe,” the trustee said. “We will exhaust every possible avenue that we can think of to bring our needs and our concerns to their attention and to push our case as hard as we can.”

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A pedestrian was seriously hurt on Saturday night as he tried to cross New York Avenue in Huntington Station.

The Suffolk County Police Department said 20-year-old Antonio Molina was hit by a Jeep on the road, just north of East 18th Street, shortly before 11 p.m. and is now in serious condition at Stony Brook University Hospital.

The 2002 Jeep had been driving north on New York Avenue at the time of the crash, police said, and its 26-year-old driver was not hurt.

Both the pedestrian and the driver are Huntington Station residents.

Police impounded the Jeep for a safety check.

Detectives from the SCPD’s 2nd Squad are investigating the crash. Anyone with information is asked the call them at 631-854-8252.

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Chad Morizsan pleads guilty to charges

Suffolk County Police Officer Nicholas Guerrero is released from Stony Brook University Hospital and transported to a rehab center. File photo by Barbara Donlon

A Northport man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to running down two Suffolk County police officers last year and critically injuring one of them.

Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota said that Chad Morizsan, who was sentenced on Thursday, July 23, waived his right to appeal and pleaded guilty to assault in the first degree, assault on a police officer, leaving the scene, grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, robbery in the second degree and forgery.

Last September, Morizsan sped off in a stolen SUV after being pulled over by officers Nicholas Guerrero and Heriberto Lugo at a traffic stop. He struck both officers as he fled the scene, critically injuring Guerrero.

Chad Morizsan. Photo from SCPD
Chad Morizsan. Photo from SCPD

Bob Clifford, a spokesman for Spota, said Guerrero was in the courtroom at Morizsan’s sentencing.

Guerrero was hospitalized for more than three weeks with a severe head injury at Stony Brook University Hospital. He underwent surgery and a regimen of physical therapy during his recovery.

He has been with the police department for four years. His partner, Lugo, was treated and released.

Once Morizsan fled the scene, along with his co-defendant and passenger Nicholas Franzone of Northport, police said they carjacked a Ford Explorer, stole the credit cards of the 87-year-old owner of the Explorer in her Commack driveway and stole gas from a gas station in the area.

The two were arrested at a Central Islip store hours later when police said they attempted to purchase a television with the woman’s stolen credit card.

Attorney Ian Fitzgerald, who is representing Franzone, has said that Franzone had nothing to do with the hit-and-run.

“He was in the back seat of the car,” Fitzgerald said in a previous interview. “He had nothing to do with Mr. Morizsan fleeing and injuring the officer … he had no control over the vehicle.”

Franzone is set to return to court on Aug. 4, charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle for his alleged role in the carjacking incident, police said.

Daniel Guttmann, who is listed in online court records as Morizsan’s attorney, didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment on Tuesday.

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A pedestrian was killed while walking in the lanes of a busy Long Island road Sunday night.

The Suffolk County Police Department said 36-year-old Christopher Noselli was walking in Veterans Memorial Highway’s eastbound lanes near Old Townline Road around 9:20 p.m. when he was hit by a car that was traveling east.

Noselli was pronounced dead at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown, police said. The driver, a 25-year-old Smithtown woman, was not hurt.

Police impounded the car, a 2006 Nissan Murano, for a safety check.

Detectives from the SCPD’s 4th Squad are investigating the incident. Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call them at 631-854-8452.

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An SUV overturned in a wooded area in Port Jefferson Station early on Sunday morning, killing the driver.

The Suffolk County Police Department said the man was heading south on Route 112 in a gray 2004 Ford Explorer, near Washington Avenue, at about 4:20 a.m. when he lost control of the vehicle. He crossed over into the northbound side of the road, then left the roadway and overturned in a wooded area.

A physician assistant from the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner pronounced him dead at the scene, police said.

Police did not immediately identify the driver, as his next of kin had not yet been notified.

The SCPD impounded the Explorer for a safety check.

Detectives from the 6th Squad are investigating the single-car crash. Anyone who may have witnessed it is asked to call them at 631-854-8652.

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Joan Beard mugshot from SCPD

Police arrested a Port Jefferson Station woman on Saturday night after finding her unresponsive in a car with her toddler, allegedly under the influence of drugs.

According to the Suffolk County Police Department, officers Michael Becker and Michael Cafarella from the 6th Precinct were responding to an anonymous 911 call about an unresponsive woman with a child in a car, parked at a Gulf station on Route 112 in Medford.

Becker and Cafarella arrived at about 7:30 p.m. and knocked on the car window, police said. The woman sitting in the driver’s seat, 31-year-old Joan Beard, did not respond to the knock but woke up when the officers opened the car door.

Police said Beard was under the influence of drugs, and was arrested.

Her 2-year-old daughter, who was in the backseat of the car, was unharmed. Child Protective Services was notified and the girl was released to family members, police said.

Beard was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.

Beard was listed on the New York State court system’s online database as representing herself and could not be reached for comment.

She has a previous charge pending against her as well, for possession of a hypodermic instrument.

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A motorcyclist was seriously injured early on Saturday morning when an SUV hit him as he was lying in the road.

The Suffolk County Police Department said 31-year-old Flushing resident James Dang lost control of his bike, a 2004 Suzuki, while riding north at about 1:35 a.m. on Moriches Road in Lake Grove, just south of Jericho Turnpike. He was lying in the road when a dark-colored SUV struck him and then fled the scene.

Dang was treated at Stony Brook University Hospital for serious injuries, police said.

Detectives from the SCPD’s 4th Squad are investigating the crash. Anyone who may have witnessed it is asked to call them at 631-854-8452 or to call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 800-220-TIPS.

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Following investigation, police apprehend man in Greenlawn

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A Centerport man who police said robbed three Suffolk County banks and attempted to hit a fourth in Huntington all in the same month was arrested on Friday morning in Greenlawn.

Police pored over video surveillance and multiple Crime Stoppers tips and ended up pinning Frank Marquez, 46, with the robbery of a TD Bank on Broadhollow Road in Farmingdale on July 7; the robbery of another TD Bank on Deer Park Avenue in Deer Park on July 14; and the July 21 robbery of a Capital One on Deer Park Avenue in North Babylon.

Police also said he tried to rob a People’s United Bank on E. Main Street in Huntington on July 14. At the time, police said a man in shorts, a white T-shirt and a red hat made verbal demands for money at the bank but fled after the teller did not comply. But he was successful 25 minutes later, when he allegedly showed up at the TD Bank on Deer Park Avenue and once again verbally demanded money from a teller.

Police said the teller gave the man money and he fled south from the Deer Park bank on foot. The suspect at the time was described as a Hispanic man with a gray goatee, between 40 and 45 years old, and between 5 foot 6 inches and 5 foot 7 inches tall with a medium build.

The Suffolk County Police Pattern Crime Unit detectives, with assistance from officers in the 2nd Precinct, found Marquez on Pulaski Road near Butterfield Drive in Greenlawn at 10:23 a.m. A detective from the Pattern Crime Unit said he was apprehended in his car, a 1994 Jeep Cherokee.

Marquez was charged with three counts of third-degree robbery, one count of attempted third-degree robbery and second-degree aggravated unlicensed operation, for driving with a suspended license.

Marquez is being held overnight and is scheduled for arraignment at First District Court in Central Islip on July 25.

Attorney information for Marquez wasn’t immediately available on Friday afternoon.

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Suffolk County police car. File photo

Suffolk County police are investigating a motor vehicle crash that killed a Bohemia bicyclist in Lake Ronkonkoma on Tuesday evening.

Laura Heerbrandt, 23, of Ronkonkoma, was driving a 2014 Nissan eastbound on Portion Road when her car struck Luis Benitez, 51. According to police, Benitez swerved into her lane of traffic as he was traveling westbound on Portion Road.

Benitez was pronounced dead at the scene by a physician assistant from the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner. Heerbrandt was not injured.

The vehicle was impounded for a safety check and the investigation is continuing. Detectives are asking anyone with information about this crash to contact the Fourth Squad at (631) 854-8452.

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