Former Long Island Code Enforcement Officer Caught On Camera In Bogus DWI Stop: Mayor

LONG ISLAND, NY — A business informed officials of a Long Island village that one of their code enforcement officers was caught on camera pulling a woman over and tested her sobriety outside of the 2.3 square mile village's limits back in December, the village's mayor told Patch in an interview on Wednesday night.

The former code enforcement officer, who has since been fired from his job, was arrested Wednesday morning after investigators learned he falsely told the woman he could arrest her for driving while intoxicated but drove her home instead, authorities say.

William Dymond was working as a Code Enforcement Officer on Dec. 29 when he followed a woman he believed was driving while intoxicated and pulled over her vehicle in front of a location on North Ocean Avenue in Patchogue at around 5:20 a.m., Suffolk police said.

Code enforcement officers are not authorized to perform DWI arrests, but Dymond performed field sobriety tests, placed the woman in handcuffs, and escorted her into his official code enforcement vehicle, and then drove her to her Centereach home, according to police.

Village officials became aware of the incident on March 15 and contacted the police department, police said.

"He pulled over and followed somebody outside the village, and it was caught on a camera," Pontieri said, adding that he proceeded to go through the process of testing the woman, telling her to look ahead and touch her nose, and walk in a straight line, which are standard tests used by law enforcement to determine if someone is intoxicated.

Pontieri said that Dymond was caught on the camera of a commercial building and at a recent event, a representative told him, "Hey, one of your guys pulled someone over out front."

It was "so far out of policy" what he did that the village advised the police department, according to Pontieri.

The commanding officer of the village's Public Safety Department has been, "in his direction to all of the public safety people, very clear in what the priorities what the parameters of their job are and what they can do and what they can't do, and Mr. Dymond didn't follow it," Pointieri said.

Pontieri said he is not shocked by the occurrence.

"You hire people because you think they're going to do a good job, but it never surprises me anymore," he said. "Maybe I've been around too long. Nothing surprises me. It's unfortunate it happened. It's unfortunate because he may have thought what he was doing, he was doing for all the right reasons, but they aren't the right reasons."

Dymond, 33, of Medford, has been charged with first-degree falsifying business records and offering a false instrument for filing, both felonies, as well as misdemeanor charges of second-degree unlawful imprisonment and official misconduct.

The details of Dymond's arraignment were not immediately available on Wednesday afternoon.

Anyone who believes they have been a victim of his is asked to call 5th Squad detectives in Patchogue at 631-854-8541.