Cops: Shelter Island teen in go-kart DWI

A Shelter Island teen has been arrested and charged with enhanced DWI as an adult under Leandra's Law for driving a go-kart while drunk and carrying an underage passenger, police said Friday.

Lennon Sarfati, 18, was charged with felony driving while intoxicated, endangering the welfare of a child and other charges, Shelter Island Police Chief James Read said.

"We conferred with the district attorney's office and they felt it was a Leandra's Law violation," Read said. "He was riding with two minors, one clinging to the back and one sitting on his lap, and he had gone about two miles before he was stopped."

Leandra's Law makes it a felony to drive drunk with anyone under 16 years old in the vehicle, and carries a penalty of up to four years in prison for first-time offenders.

A spokesman for Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said Sarfati's breath test exceed the .08 percent level for drunkenness, and prosecutors recommended the enhanced charges for several reasons.

"His blood alcohol level [from a breathalyzer] was 1.1, the vehicle is a bit larger than a go-kart . . . approximating a dune buggy, [and] he was driving drunk on a public highway on Shelter Island around 4 o'clock in the morning [Thursday] when he was stopped by local police," spokesman Robert Clifford said in an email.

"One of his passengers was a 15-year-old female, hence the Leandra's Law charge," the email said. "There was also a 17-year-old female on board. The local police had warned him recently to keep the vehicle off the public highways of the town."

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A patrol officer stopped the go-kart on West Neck Road at 4:34 a.m. Thursday, Read said. He said the three youthswere coming from a party, but he refused to give details except to say, "The investigation is continuing."

A Shelter Island village justice set bail at $10,000, and Sarfati was being held at the Suffolk County Jail, the police chief said.

Neither Sarfati nor his family could be reached for comment Friday.

Leandra's Law, formally called the Child Passenger Protection Act, has been on the books since Dec. 18, 2009 when it was signed by Gov. David Paterson.

The law is named after Leandra Rosado, an 11-year-old who was killed in October 2009 when an SUV she was riding in crashed on the Henry Hudson Parkway in Manhattan.