Cops: Dealer sold drugs out of Lincoln Street garage within a half-mile of two schools

A drug dealer operating out of an auto repair shop less than half a mile from Pulaski Street Elementary School was arrested on weapons and drug charges in an East End Drug Task Force raid on Aug. 31, according to police.

Police said the raid followed an investigation of several months duration that was prompted by citizen complaints about drug activity at the business, located at 500 Lincoln Street.

The garage is 2/10 of a mile from the Pulaski Street school and a half-mile from St. Isidore’s school.

Police said the operator of the business, Bryan Hale, 45, of East Avenue Extension, was selling marijuana during the evening hours his shop was open.

“Surveillances indicated significant pedestrian and bicycle traffic at the auto repair shop as well as vehicle traffic where subjects would only stop by for brief periods,” police said in a news release.

Police seized a quantity of marijuana, a loaded .22-caliber rifle and a loaded 12-gauge shotgun in the raid, according to the release.

Hale was charged with: criminal possession of marijuana in the fourth degree, a class A misdemeanor; criminal possession of marijuana in the fifth degree degree, a class B misdemeanor; three counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, a class A misdemeanor; and one count of criminal contempt in the second degree, a class A misdemeanor, according to court records.

The contempt charge was due to his failure to comply with an order of protection that stipulates he surrender all weapons to the police, according to police. A prior felony conviction precluded Hale from owning any rifle, shotgun or firearm, police said.

Hale was arraigned in Riverhead Justice Court on Sept. 2 and released on $10,000 cash bail, according to court records. He is due back in court Oct. 1.

The garage was the location of a Sept. 12 dispute that culminated in a shot being fired, according to Riverhead Town Pollice. Joseph Smith, 49,  got into a fight at the garage and allegedly fired a .32 caliber handgun at William Kowalski, who was uninjured. Smith fled the scene, police said. Southampton police located Smith outside his home on Oak Avenue in Flanders, where Riverhead police placed him under arrest, according to a police report. Smith was charged with felony weapons and endangerment charges and held in lieu of $75,000 cash bail. He was found dead at the jail on Sept. 23, according to the sheriff’s department. The cause of death remains under investigation but no evidence of an incident or accident was found, according to a spokesman for the sheriff’s office. See prior story.

Editor’s note: A criminal charge is an accusation. By law, a person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

View Larger Map

{loadposition tab1}