Andrea Brosnan

A former Village of Old Field treasurer has been accused of using nearly $60,000 in taxpayer funds to pay her personal bills over a four-year period ending last spring.

Andrea Brosnan pleaded not guilty Wednesday at Suffolk County court to grand larceny, falsifying business records, defrauding the government and official misconduct.

“Brosnan began taking money by making payments from the village account to pay her personal credit cards, utility bills and cell phone bills,” District Attorney Tom Spota said. “She falsified entries in the village ledger to make the entries appear to be legitimate.”

Prosecutors said there is also evidence that the 42-year-old Port Jefferson woman secured village gas card accounts to buy fuel for her own vehicle, cigarettes, food and beverages without authorization after she was appointed in January 2009, through March 2012.

New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s office referred the case to the district attorney after uncovering the alleged thefts during an audit, which his office said will be finalized in the coming weeks.

She had previously served as deputy village clerk since May of 2008.

Judge Paul Hensley released Brosnan without bail.

Thomas Herman will be arraigned Friday on that and 23 other charges at Suffolk County court. The 46-year-old Patchogue man is currently being held without bail.

“Our retrieval and analysis of the data from the black box in Herman’s SUV has established his 2008 Chevy Trailblazer was traveling at 87 miles per hour at the point of impact with the victim’s Hyundai Elantra,” Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota said.

Prosecutors said Herman was high on PCP, Morphine and various prescription medications while speeding on Montauk Highway during the hit-and-run crashes in the early evening hours of Sunday, Jan. 13.

The last of those crashes was head-on, leaving Sam Longo of West Islip dead and his passenger, 79-year old Agnes Gilbert of Oakdale, suffering from a fractured hip, pelvis, leg and several broken ribs.

Spota said a store surveillance camera captured Herman swipe a car alongside him, shearing off the car’s outside mirror in front of a Suffolk County police officer, who started pursuing the suspect 10 seconds before the deadly collision.

Suffolk authorities said the alleged conspirators manufactured fake designer logos like these to counterfeit handbags.

Suffolk County authorities say they’ve busted five suspects running an international trademark counterfeiting ring that sold fashionable knockoff pocketbooks, apparel, sunglasses and other items across the country.

Federal and local investigators seized truckloads of items bearing the trademark brands of North Face, Uggs, Coach, Louis Vuitton, Tory Burch, Michael Kors, Oakley, Nike, Kate Spade, Prada, Tiffany and other manufacturers following raids on Queens storage facilities, authorities said.

“Every item imported by these defendants was counterfeit,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota. “They arranged and supervised shipments of cheap knock offs while using the labels, logos and signature look of successful manufacturers and designers in the fashion industry.”

He said the quintet imported the fake goods from plants in China, stored it in Queens warehouses and distributed to resellers in across New York and the nation, including Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Georgia and California.

All five suspects have been indicted on conspiracy and trademark counterfeiting charges. They include 42-year-old Chee “Jimmy” Kwan Yim, 39-year-old Chee “Janice” Kuen Yim, 44-year-old Chee “Steve” Ching Yim and 28-year-old Regina Ngan—who all lived together in Little Neck—and Anthony Moresco, 63, of New Jersey.

All five except for Ngan were also charged with enterprise corruption. Jimmy and Janice were also charged with money laundering. All five have pleaded not guilty.

JAY STEINER

Suffolk County authorities say they have seized more than 300 guns and a cache of ammunition from a house near Centereach High School where the homeowner allegedly ran an illegal gun-smithing business.

Jay Steiner was arrested in January and charged with criminal possession of a weapon for illegal possession of more than 10 operable firearms. Prosecutors announced the case Thursday after they said crime lab investigators completed testing this week on many of the more than seven dozen illegal handguns found in his house.

“Most of the guns recovered from this defendant’s home were not under lock and key,” Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said. “We found them scattered among various rooms in the house and in an unlocked attic.”

When the district attorney’s Gun Suppression Team executed a search warrant, they found five loaded handguns in an unlocked dresser drawer in the bedroom, a loaded shotgun hanging on the wall, a revolver under a hat in the kitchen, seven handguns in a briefcase and 67 handguns in two basement safes, Spota added.

Investigators also found in the basement two devices called “drop-in auto sears,” a small piece of metal used to convert an AR-15 rifle into a fully automatic machine gun, he said.

Steiner is currently free on bail. He is due back in court April 29.

The county legislation would also allow authorities to seize vehicles owned by people other than the driver when the car or truck is used to flee the scene of a crash that left a victim seriously injured or dead if the owner knowingly tried to cover-up the incident.

“Too many lives have been lost, and while we can’t change what has happened, we can do everything within our power to prevent these tragedies from happening again,” said Legis. Kate Browning (WF-Shirley), chair of the public safety committee.

Authorities similarly seize vehicles owned by felony drunken-driving suspects. Browning cited Suffolk County police statistics showing that there were 5,555 hit-and-run crashes last year, 11 of which resulted in fatalities.

Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota urged the legislature to pass the bill before the vote. He also urged lawmakers to lobby the state Assembly to pass a bill that would increase the sentences for hit-and-run convicts—a proposal that has already passed the state Senate.

“Drivers who leave the scene of an accident and are arrested later, face lesser criminal charges than they would if they were caught at the scene—especially if the offender was driving drunk or while under the influence of drugs,” Spota said.

The state bill would increase the prison sentence to 7 years to 15 years from the current 2 1/3 to 7 year maximum sentence for those convicted at trial of a hit-and-run crash.

Spota and Browning both cited the case of repeat-felon Preston Mimms, 48, of Mastic, who was sentenced to 1 1/3 to 4 years in January after pleading guilty to killing 24-year-old Erika Hughes while she was walking to her Shirley home on July, 29 2011.

After he was apprehended nine months after the fatality, investigators found that Mimms was driving with a suspended license but were unable to prove if he was intoxicated or speeding at the time.

The hit-and-run vehicle seizure law now goes to County Executive Steve Bellone for signing and would take effect immediately.