Southold blotter: Area authorities team up to find kayaking father and daughter


A Wyandanch motorcyclist attacked a Southold police officer attempting to arrest him for speeding, according to police, after the officer clocked the black motorcycle going 92 mph on Route 48 near Cabots Wood Road. The speed enforcement officer then pursued the suspect, authorities said, and watched him speeding and weaving through traffic, and conducted a traffic stop. The driver, Messiah Benyehudah, 24, refused to step off his motorcycle despite repeated orders from the officer, who observed a large knife sheathed on the suspect’s right side. A fight broke out when the officer attempted to handcuff Mr. Benyehudah, who was eventually subdued and taken into custody. A 10-inch knife was recovered. According to police, multiple witnesses stopped at the scene to report the suspect’s dangerous driving. Mr. Benyahudah was processed and released on an appearance ticket. 

• Police are on the lookout for a small gray SUV driven by a woman in her 70s with shoulder length light or white hair, who is alleged to have struck and killed a dog that ran into the road around 10:45 p.m. Aug. 27, and then fled the scene. According to police, the dog had accidentally been let out of a home on Depot Lane in Cutchogue by a young child. A neighbor with a surveillance camera turned video of the vehicle over to authorities. 

• On Aug. 27, a Cutchogue man reported receiving an alert that someone was trying to use his social security number to open an account. The individual is monitoring all financial activity for any further signs of fraud.

• On Aug. 28, police marine units from Southold, Riverhead and Southampton, as well as Southold drone unit, performed a grid search for a father and daughter who had gone kayaking and did not return home. The Southampton marine unit located the pair, and the Southold marine unit transported the kayak and its passengers back to Laurel. 

• On Aug. 28, police received a report of an intoxicated man leaving the Southold 7-11 in a red Honda Civic. Authorities located Jose Rivera Guillen, 28, of Greenport, who is alleged to have been found intoxicated inside the car, which was running, and was arrested. 

• On Aug. 29, a 94-year-old Southold woman reported being targeted by an online scam. She told police she received a call from someone claiming to be from Chase bank, who transferred her to another person claiming to be a Zelle representative. She was told that Zelle needed to reload her account with $987.09 through a bar code that needed to be scanned at a Walmart. The barcode wouldn’t work at the first Walmart, according to authorities, and Walmart employees at a second store told her it was a scam. The woman was advised to place a fraud alert with a credit monitoring service and the FTC. 

• On Aug. 30, a Mattituck man found a pair of Hello Kitty sneakers on the roadside near Sound Avenue and Farmveu Road in Laurel and contacted police, who canvassed the area to find their owner without success. 

• On Sept. 1, Southold police received a request from Southampton Town Police to locate the owner of a vehicle alleged to have left the scene of a multi-vehicle accident in Quogue. According to his housemate, the vehicle’s 51-year-old owner is undergoing heart surgery in Manhattan. The housemate said he would alert the owner when he visits him in the hospital. 

• On Sept. 1, James Barrett, 44, of Riverhead was arrested for driving while impaired by drugs after his Toyota Tundra allegedly veered off North Road in Southold and struck an unoccupied parked Jeep.

• On Sept. 1, David Contreras Chapeton, 51, of Mattituck was arrested for driving while intoxicated following a traffic stop on Sigsbee Road north of Peconic Bay Boulevard in Mattituck..

• On Sept. 2, Santiago Najera Jimenez, 37, of Southold was charged with DWI following a traffic stop on Cox Lane in Cutchogue. 

Those who are named in police reports have not been convicted of any crime or violation. The charges against them may later be reduced or withdrawn, or they may be found innocent.



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