Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota’s office has dropped a trespassing charge filed against an East Quogue woman in July after she was arrested for taking pictures of the Air National Guard base in
Westhampton, while she had two guns and hundreds of rounds of
ammunition in her car.

The decision to dismiss the misdemeanor charge filed against 53-year-old Nancy Genovese was made following an investigation conducted by the DA’s office, and comes less than one
month after she filed separate lawsuits against Suffolk County and
Southampton Town alleging that she was falsely arrested.

The misdemeanor charge was dropped on November 17 after an investigation found that Ms. Genovese had remained inside her car and outside the
base’s property at Gabreski Airport just prior to her arrest, Robert
Clifford, a spokesman for the DA, wrote in an e-mail.

The dismissal came after Ms. Genovese filed identical lawsuits on October 23—one with the Southampton Town clerk’s office, naming the town as a
defendant, and one with the Suffolk County Clerk’s office, naming the
county as a defendant. The lawsuits allege that Ms. Genovese was
arrested and imprisoned “without probable cause or other legal
justification,” that her vehicle was searched and her two guns were
seized unlawfully, that she was verbally abused by Suffolk County
Sheriff’s Department officers while she was detained, and a slew of
other charges related to her arrest and subsequent detention.

Ms. Genovese’s lawsuits do not list the amount of money she is seeking in damages but charge that she’s owed “reasonable compensation to be
determined by a jury, punitive damages, and attorneys’ fees and
expenses.” The Manhattan law firm representing her in her civil case
did not return calls seeking comment.

“Apparently, they can arrest you for anything they want and say, ‘Oops, sorry,’” Ms. Genovese said of her arrest and the subsequent dismissal of her charges. “They
tried me, they found me guilty, and they were going to punish me in
there.”

Ms. Genovese was arrested on July 30 by Suffolk County sheriff’s deputies after Air National Guard officials said they saw her taking photographs near the entrance of the base at Gabreski Airport.
Authorities said they found an XM-15 assault rifle and a shotgun—both
registered and unloaded—in her car, and an estimated 500 rounds of
ammunition in her trunk at the time of her arrest. She said she was on
the way home from a shooting range at the time of her arrest.

She was charged with third-degree criminal trespassing and was released four days later from the Suffolk County Jail in Riverside after posting
$50,000 bail.

Most of Ms. Genovese’s allegations detailed in her lawsuits were directed at the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department.

Suffolk County Attorney Christine Malafi declined this week to comment on the specific charges, citing the pending litigation. But Ms. Malafi noted
that the county has requested a deposition from Ms. Genovese in
response to her claim. During the deposition, which might be given in
December, the county will question Ms. Genovese about the allegations
and her background.

“My office looks forward to vigorously defending the county against her claims,” Ms. Malafi said. “The Sheriff’s Department did what they thought they had to do to protect
public safety.”

Chief Michael Sharkey with the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday that his office was aware of the lawsuit filed by Ms. Genovese but could not comment on it.

When reached last Thursday, November 19, Ms. Genovese said that Sheriff’s Department officers failed to tell her she was under arrest until about
2 a.m. on July 31, after she had been questioned without a lawyer
present for about eight hours. Ms. Genovese said officers with the
Sheriff’s Department only told her she was under arrest after they had
found her Myspace.com profile online, which Ms. Genovese said expresses
politically conservative viewpoints.

At that point, Ms. Genovese said, officers began calling her a “right-wing extremist.” She said a similar characterization by a county prosecutor, whose name she could
not recall, at her arraignment contributed to a Southampton Town
Justice Court’s decision to set her bail excessively high, and led her
to believe she was being treated unjustly by authorities for her
political beliefs.

“Even if it was a trespass [third-degree] violation, who gets a $50,000 bail?” said Ms. Genovese who described herself as a “conservative” person. “It’s absurd.”

The lawsuits also level some charges against Southampton Town Police. Ms. Genovese’s lawsuits allege that an off-duty Southampton Town Police officer
originally approached Ms. Genovese while she was taking pictures while
sitting in her car and outside the base, demanded that she hand over
her camera, and then alerted Suffolk County sheriffs and base officials
of her presence..