DAN'S PAPERS, January 30, 2009 Page 18 www.danshamptons.com
Wine
Jail Time
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we’re looking toward doing. Our neighbor, the Sag Harbor Liquor Store, has been there for a long time. We have a grocery business that’s growing in many directions, so we don’t need to carry wines. If we were to carry wines we’d have to be knowledgeable about them. It would be a whole new business. We would have to set it up right, and it’s just not something we need or care to do.” NYS Assemblyman Fred Thiele of Sag Harbor said he also thinks it’s “a bad idea” to sell wine in supermarkets and grocery stores. “I think it would adversely impact the small wine and liquor stores, and it would also open up more possibility of having DWIs,” he said. “Our local wineries also have concerns that if they allow wines in grocery stores, they will be carrying wine from other vicinities as well, which will give our local vineyards more competition.” Thiele said the state has been considering the idea of selling wines in grocery stores for “about 30 years, every time they need to think of ways to increase money in their coffers.” Tom Morgan, wholesale wine manager at Lenz Winery on the North Fork, said he’s against having wine sold in grocery stores because “in most stores they don’t have the skills to sell the higher priced wines, and it’s a betrayal of the trust between the state and retail license holder. “This is a short-sighted, money-generated contrivance that the state came up with, and there is no long-term benefit to the consumer or the wine business,” he said.
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that, with some of the money, she had built for herself in Montauk up in Culloden Shores. She’d put that up for sale. Surely the proceeds of the sale of that house would provide the funds for the restitution. The property was appraised. She was right about that. The house would probably sell for about $550,000, considering what the market was at that time. As time passed and as real estate values sank, there were a few lowball offers for the house, and then not even that. Prices were coming down, and unless that situation was reversed, Gaines’ jail time would be going up. You think you’ve got troubles? In the plea bargain, there really was no provision for what might happen if Gaines were able to make only partial restitution. But lawyers familiar with the case say that it really doesn’t have to be all or nothing. If it’s three to nine for no money and one to five for full restitution, then surely paying half would land her somewhere in between. And other amounts might be considered for smaller or larger stays in the slammer. There’s a lot of sympathy for Gaines in Montauk at this time. People say that with the house lingering on the market for more than a year, they should put the matter behind them and let her get on with her life. But judges don’t see things that way. She had done what she did. Judge Gazzillo made her an offer. It was not his fault the market tanked. The plea bargain arrangement was made in late December of 2007. The judge wanted her back in his court in January with the money.
Certainly, at that time, it seemed that could be done. People were lining up for water-view houses at that time. To his credit, the judge gave her extensions to the date when he would award her sentencing. The first was to March 2008, then to May 18, 2008, then to September. There was a “final” extension to January 9, 2009, and then, as it appeared that finally this house was now in contract, to February 6. As this is written, it is January 16. The Montauk house never did sell, but a house on Sandford Place, in Southampton, willed to her by her mother, was sold last week for a sum, which, on the surface, would seem to solve the problem. It went for $850,000. There are, however, back taxes owed and perhaps some mortgage payments, so it is possible that in the end, the net paid out in restitution might be below $539,000. If it were one percent below, she would have to serve one year plus 18 days extra. We will know on February 6, when Gaines is back before Judge Gazzillo in Islip for sentencing. Keep in mind that you can always get one quarter of your sentence off for good behavior, so the actual jail time would decrease, by that mathematical equation, from 12 months and 18 days to 9 months and 12 days. It’s been a unique and harrowing experience for her and her family. Hopefully, beginning February 6, they will know where things stand and begin to get back to their lives.
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