Crimes Nearby: Arrest in Islip Town Hall Bomb Threats, W. Babylon Man Charged with Defrauding H.E.L.P. Program

A West Babylon man who works for the New York State DOT has been arrested by the Nassau DA's office for allegedly falsifying the records he kept in connection with the state's H.E.L.P. roadside assistance program.

According to officials, Brian Miller, 55, a HELP program supervisor, was snared in a dual-agency investigation with the state inspectors office and charged with four counts of falsifying business records and one count of official misconduct. Miller was arrested with one other, Dominick Iannolo, 44, of Lake Ronkonkoma, for the same charges. Both men are due back in court September 11.

In a statement released by District Attorney Kathleen Rice, the charges claim that in July and August of 2010, Miller, while acting as a supervisor and truck operator in the roadside assistance program, was assigning cases to his own vehicle and then logging in assistance to vehicles that was never performed. According to the release, each time a H.E.L.P truck comes to the aid of a stranded vehicle, the operator must enter the vehicle type, license plate number and description of duty into a daily log. 

Rice said Miller was logging in actual license plates of vehicles whose owners claimed they were never assisted by a H.E.L.P truck, and some of the license plate numbers he recorded did not exist in state DMV records.

Rice indicated that Iannolo and Miller's motivation for the fraud was to avoid decreases in HELP Program state funding, which could include their own job security.

A Central Islip man was arrested Friday for making multiple bombs threats to Islip Town Hall over the past year, police said. 

Ronald Kellman, 41, is charged with four counts of falsely reporting an incident after police say he called in threats to Town Hall from pay phones on Nov. 17, 2011 and Jan. 11, May 23 and June 12 of this year. 

In each case, Kellman "threatened that there was a bomb in the building" on Main Street in Islip, police said. 

Kellman, according to published reports, was the host of a birthday party in 2010 that turned violent, with a 17-year-old Brooklyn teenager shot and killed outside of the party in Central Islip. 

Kellman will be arraigned in First District Court in Central Islip on Saturday.

Police did not release any other information on the incident, including what motive may have been behind the threats.

Following a car crash in July that sent him, his wife and his daughter careening into the back of a 7-Eleven on Motor Parkway, a Westbury man now faces felony aggravated vehicular homicide, second-degree manslaughter, and DWI charges under Leandra's Law after his 10-month-old daughter died of brain injuries last week.

A prosecutor with the office of District Attorney Thomas Spota said at an arraignment on Wednesday that Jose Escobar, 29, drank a six-pack of Heineken, drove at speeds up to 100 miles per hour, and had a blood alcohol level over three times the legal limit before he

His girlfriend, 27-year-old Maria Guillen, was eight months pregnant at the time with his child, who was saved through an emergency c-section performed at Stony Brook University Medical Center.

On Wednesday, Escobar pleaded not guilty to the upgraded charges, as Suffolk County Judge John Toomey unsealed a thirteen-count indictment. Escobar stands charged with three counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, manslaughter in the second degree, two counts of aggravated DWI with a child, aggravated DWI, two counts of DWI, endangering the welfare of a child, reckless driving, speeding, and failure to stay in a lane of travel.

Two men robbed the Lowe's store in East Farmingdale Monday night.

Suffolk County police said the two men entered the store on Price Parkway at 7:50 p.m. and demanded cash. One man pulled a handgun.Police said the cashier handed over the money and the two men fled in a two-door sports car.

One man was described as black, about 20 years old, 5-foot-8, thin and with braided hair. The second man is described as black, also about 20, 5-foot-4, with a heavy build. Both men were wearing dark clothes and dark baseball caps.