Officer asked about messages at Kabot trial

A Westhampton Beach police lieutenant testified Thursday that he could not recall details of phone calls and text messages he exchanged with a police union official shortly after the 2009 drunken driving arrest of then-Southampton Town Supervisor Linda Kabot.

Lt. Trevor Gonce, who was called as a reluctant witness for Kabot at her trial, acknowledged under questioning from her attorney that he had exchanged a series of calls and texts with Patrick Aube, president of the Patrolman's Benevolent Association of Southampton Town, in the early morning of Sept. 7, 2009, after Kabot was charged.

But Gonce, a sergeant at the time, said in Riverhead Town Court that he did not remember details of what was discussed.

Kabot's attorney, William Keahon of Hauppauge, has pointed to the communications between police and union officials as an indication that Kabot was set up by her political opponents to be arrested two months before she stood for re-election.

"I believe I said, 'I'm awake,' " Gonce said, describing a text he sent to Aube at 12:39 a.m., about 30 minutes after Kabot was taken into custody.

When Keahon asked Gonce what had been said in texts between him and Aube at 1:21 a.m. and 1:50 a.m. the same night, Gonce replied, "I don't recall."

Kabot, 43, of Quogue, lost her re-election bid in November 2009 to Democrat Anna Throne-Holst.

Police said Kabot was charged with driving while intoxicated and other charges on Main Street in Westhampton Beach when she refused three times to take a breath test to see whether she had been drinking.

Under cross-examination by prosecutor Anthony Baron, Gonce testified he took job-related calls and messages around the clock because he is the department's executive officer and always on call.

He said he didn't remember the communications with Aube because he did not expect to be testifying about them.