Video of her arrest shown at Kabot DWI trial

A video of Linda Kabot's 2009 arrest on suspicion of drunken driving shows the then-Southampton town supervisor walking unsteadily during a field sobriety test and arguing with Westhampton Beach police.

In the half-hour video of the Sept. 7, 2009 arrest, she refused three times to take a breath test to determine whether she had been drinking. The video was shown Monday, the first day of Kabot's trial in Riverhead Town Court.

"I can't believe this," Kabot says on the video, shot from inside a police patrol car.

Minutes later, she refuses to take a breath test and says she wants to call her husband, Lance. She repeats the refusal twice more on the video. "I feel that I am not intoxicated," Kabot tells police.

Kabot, 43, of Quogue lost her re-election bid two months after her arrest.

In opening arguments, Kabot's attorney, William Keahon of Hauppauge, told jurors that police violated department policy by stopping the recording during Kabot's arrest.

Testifying for prosecutors, Westhampton Beach Police Officer Steven McManus said he and another officer stopped recording Kabot's arrest for about three minutes to ensure the video was functioning properly because of Kabot's high profile.

"This looked to me like this was going to be a DWI arrest, and we were going to take the Southampton town supervisor into custody," he said, under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Anthony Baron.

Riverhead Town Justice Allen Smith ordered the video released to Newsday, which has requested it. A copy was not immediately available, said Robert Clifford, a spokesman for District Attorney Thomas Spota.

McManus testified that Kabot was "argumentative" and did not follow instructions from police. At one point, he said, Kabot was told to turn around and walk forward.

Instead, McManus said, "She kind of does the moonwalk backwards."

Keahon told jurors Kabot complied with the officers' instructions during the field sobriety test and even took her shoes off without stumbling. "She does it perfectly," Keahon said.