Trial set for ex-Southampton official facing DWI charge

Former Southampton Town Supervisor Linda Kabot will go on trial in January to face drunken-driving charges, a Riverhead town judge said Tuesday.

Jury selection in Kabot's trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 27, and opening arguments are slated for Jan. 31, Town Justice Allen Smith said.

Kabot, 42, of Quogue, has pleaded not guilty to driving while intoxicated, stemming from her arrest shortly after midnight on Sept. 7, 2009, in Westhampton.

Kabot lost her re-election bid two months after her arrest. Westhampton Village police said Kabot refused to take a test to see whether she had alcohol on her breath.

At a pretrial hearing Tuesday in Riverhead Town Court, Suffolk prosecutors asked Smith to allow testimony from an unidentified witness who prosecutors say would testify that Kabot had three beers at a bar six to eight hours before her arrest.

Prosecutors Joshua Shapiro and Anthony Baron argued the testimony would show Kabot had more to drink than she has admitted. Kabot acknowledged drinking two glasses of wine, the prosecutors said.

Smith said consumption of alcohol more than two hours before a drunken-driving arrest usually is not admissible at trial. "I'm not real sure how you're going to get this in," Smith told prosecutors, referring to the proposed testimony. He said he would rule on prosecutors' request in December.

Outside court, Kabot's attorney, William Keahon of Hauppauge, denied that Kabot had three beers at the bar. He said prosecutors' attempts to have that testimony admitted was "malicious."

Kabot's case is being heard in Riverhead after two Westhampton court justices recused themselves because they know Kabot.

Keahon tried to bar a Newsday reporter from covering Tuesday's hearing, arguing that testimony about Kabot's alleged drinking might prejudice potential jurors. Smith refused to remove the reporter.Smith reserved judgment on a request by prosecutors to show jurors a video that instructs police about how to tell if someone is drunk.