By Hank Russell
Two employees with the Town of East Hampton have been indicted for allegedly accepting bribes in exchange for providing building permits and related documents while employed at the town’s Building Department.
In 2024, East Hampton Town Senior Office Assistant Evelyn Calderon and East Hampton Town Building Inspector Ryan Benitez, acting in concert, allegedly accepted cash bribes from various contractors in order to issue accelerated building permits and Certificates of Occupancy. Specifically, when a bribe was received from a contractor, Calderon would allegedly prioritize a bribe-paying contractor’s application, even though she was supposed to process applications in chronological order. Typically, a building permit application in East Hampton Town takes months to be issued. However, once a bribe was received, Calderon, working together with Benitez, would allegedly issue a building permit within days.
Calderon would allegedly receive a cash payment from a contractor and, on the same day, sometimes within minutes, pay half of the bribe payment to Benitez. Once Benitez received his bribe payment, he would then allegedly schedule and conduct the inspection expeditiously in order to issue the building permit to the contractor.
On April 2, 2026, Calderon, 46, of Mastic, and Benitez, 37, of East Hampton, surrendered to the District Attorney’s Office and were arraigned on the indictment before Supreme Court Justice Timothy P. Mazzei for five counts of Bribe Receiving in the Third Degree, Class D felonies, and five counts of Official Misconduct, Class A misdemeanors. These offenses are considered non-bail-eligible under New York State law, meaning prosecutors cannot ask for, and judges cannot set, bail. Therefore, both defendants were released on their own recognizance. They are due back in court on May 21, 2026 and face 2-1/3 to seven years in prison if convicted on the top count.
“Public servants are expected to act with honesty and fairness in the course of their duties,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney. “The law is meant to be administered equitably for everyone, not manipulated by the corrupt actions of those who are unjustly enriched by accepting cash bribes.”
The Town of East Hampton issued a statement on the arrests. “The Town of East Hampton is grateful for the work of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office and thankful for today’s announcement of charges related to matters within the Town’s Building Department.”
The town emphasized that these acts occurred under the previous building administrator and does not reflect how the town’s building department operates today.
Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez stated, “I am grateful to District Attorney Raymond Tierney and the Public Corruption Bureau for their thorough work on the allegations we brought to their attention. For the past 18 months, this investigation has weighed heavily on our Building Department staff and on those who rely on the department’s services. Through it all, our staff continued to serve the public professionally under very difficult circumstances, and I am grateful to them for that. Now that the District Attorney’s investigation has resulted in charges, we can more fully continue our work rebuilding the Department.”