Scandal haunts Westhampton Beach race

The ghost of a past scandal involving police discipline looms over Westhampton Beach as residents prepare to vote Friday to pick two village trustees from among three people running for the jobs.

In 2009, an officer in the 16-member village police force reported his gun missing from his locker, igniting the scandal. The gun later was found on his car seat, and village police asked the Suffolk Police internal-affairs unit to investigate. Two officers were charged with lying in that probe.

It led to a bitter fight over how the officers should be treated, who should impose discipline and, ultimately, how the matter should be resolved. It also resulted in a 3-2 split on the Village Board, with several votes to drop the village charges against the officers -- a measure that the mayor refused to sign.

Now, one of the two officers has agreed to pay a $24,000 fine and a three-month unpaid suspension to resolve the matter quickly. Lawyers continue negotiating the other case, and the second officer is considering retirement, according to sources close to the case.

All of that raises the question of who to vote for, because there are candidates on both sides of the issue. Mayor Conrad Teller, a former police chief who backed disciplinary action against the officers, supports Dean Speir for trustee. He says Speir would side with him should a similar issue come up. And because the village is being sued by former Southampton Town Supervisor Linda Kabot over a drunken-driving arrest for which she was found not guilty, police discipline again is an issue.

The board members who opposed Teller's actions argued that his way of dealing with the situation was wrong. But only one of them, Hank Tucker, is running again. His running mate, Planning Board member Patricia DiBenedetto, is making her first run for public office.

The dispute over the missing gun and its fallout has cost the village at least $200,000 in legal expenses to resolve, Teller said.

There was no candidates' debate this year. Voting will be from noon to 9 p.m. in Village Hall.

The candidates for the two-year terms are DiBenedetto, 49, who has been on the Planning Board since 2008; Speir, 70, a semiretired writer who lost a tight board race four years ago; and Tucker, 50, a four-year trustee.