East Hampton Woman Charged with Two Felonies in Bridgehampton Drunk Driving Accident

Charlotte DePersia, a well-known real estate agent from East Hampton, was arrested on a felony driving while intoxicated charge on Saturday after her Land Rover sideswiped a BMW sport utility vehicle on Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton at about 11:30 p.m. 

Southampton Town police said they received a 911 call of a motor vehicle accident where DePersia's 2010 Land Rover, which was headed east, veered into the westbound lane of traffic hitting the BMW with four occupants. The BMW came to rest, facing east and pinned up against some hedges on the north side of the highway, across from Laurin Copen Antiques. DePersia's vehicle ended up a distance away to the east.

Ambulance personnel from the Ambulance Company transported all four occupants of the BMW to Southampton Hospital. Bridgehampton fire police closed the highway between Newlight Lane and Mitchell's Lane for 45 minutes.  

In addition to the felony DWI charge, DePersia was also charged with first-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, also a felony, for driving with a suspended license based on a prior misdemeanor DWI conviction. Her Land Rover was impounded under the county's DWI seizure law. 

She was transported to police headquarters in Hampton Bays, where she refused to submit to a blood test. She was held for arraignment in Southampton Town Justice Court.  Justice Deborah Kooperstein released her on her own recognizance on Sunday. 

DePersia is a sales director at  in East Hampton. 

On April 21, 2008, DePersia crashed her vehicle and broke her wrist in East Hampton Village, and was arrested on a misdemeanor DWI. The outcome of that case was not immediately available. 

According to records in East Hampton Town Justice Court, DePersia was first arrested on a DWI charge in 2003. She pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of driving while ability impaired, a violation, and paid a $535 fine.