What Happened
Joseph Carroll, 67, of Southampton, crashed his Mercedes-Benz into another vehicle while heading south on Quogue-Riverhead Road at 9:02 a.m. Tuesday, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Newsday. The collision occurred at the intersection of Quogue-Riverhead Road and Montauk Highway in Quogue Village. Carroll was a senior assistant district attorney in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office East End Bureau, the unit that prosecutes cases in the justice courts serving the five East End towns.
Quogue Village Police Department Lt. Daniel Hartman confirmed the crash location and said the arrest was made at 9:58 a.m. — 56 minutes after the initial collision. Carroll told a responding officer, “I bumped his rear bumper,” charging documents show. He also told police he had consumed alcohol the night before, on Labor Day, according to the criminal complaint.
Court records describe Carroll displaying a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath, red, bloodshot, and glassy eyes, slurred speech, and unsteadiness on his feet. The responding officer attempted walk-and-turn and one-leg stand field sobriety tests; both were discontinued for Carroll’s own safety. “These tests were performed poorly, indicative of an intoxicated condition,” the complaint reads, as Newsday reported.
Carroll refused a chemical test at 10:50 a.m. He refused twice more in the 30 minutes that followed, records show. The Suffolk County DA’s office fired him Tuesday. “Upon learning of the troubling allegations in this case, the District Attorney terminated this individual’s part-time employment,” Communications Director Anna Sokol said in a statement. The office also requested that a special prosecutor be appointed to handle the criminal case and said it expects that request to be granted.
Carroll was charged with driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor, and following too closely, a violation, Hartman confirmed. He was arraigned Tuesday before Quogue Village Justice Francis Fineo. The DWI charge is not bail eligible; Carroll was released on his own recognizance.
Defense attorney Keith O’Halloran, of Westhampton Beach, said Carroll pleaded not guilty and denies the allegations. “He has had an unblemished career dedicated to law enforcement,” O’Halloran said in a text message to Newsday. “We look forward to contesting the charges and fighting the case in court.”
Location & Road Context
The intersection of Quogue-Riverhead Road and Montauk Highway sits in Quogue Village, a small incorporated village in the Town of Southampton on the South Fork. Montauk Highway is a principal east-west arterial through the East End, and Quogue-Riverhead Road runs north from that corridor toward Riverhead. The Suffolk County roads network in this area sees elevated traffic on holiday weekends, including Labor Day. The crash falls among 941 recorded accidents in Suffolk County in our local incident database; other Suffolk crashes on September 9 were also logged that morning.
Investigation & Legal Proceedings
Carroll faces misdemeanor DWI and a following-too-closely violation. Because the DWI charge carries no bail eligibility at the misdemeanor level, Quogue Village Justice Francis Fineo released him on his own recognizance at Tuesday’s arraignment. The Suffolk County DA’s office has asked a court to assign a special prosecutor to the case, citing Carroll’s employment there; the office said it expects that request to be granted.
Carroll was admitted to the New York Bar in 1987 after attending St. Louis University School of Law. Suffolk County payroll records, maintained in a Newsday database, show he was hired by the DA’s office in February 2024 and earned $127,144 as a senior assistant district attorney in 2025. He had served a prior stint with the office that ended in 2019.
Broader Impact
A conviction on misdemeanor DWI under New York VTL § 1192.3 carries a maximum one-year jail term, a minimum $500 fine, and a six-month license revocation for a first offense. Carroll’s refusal of three chemical tests also triggers a separate civil penalty and mandatory one-year license revocation under New York’s implied-consent law, independent of the criminal proceeding. His next court date before Justice Fineo has not been publicly announced.