E. Setauket Wrong-Way Driver Pleads Not Guilty to 20 Charges

Ralph Cerullo pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to 12 counts of reckless endangerment along with drunken driving, fleeing from police, and other offenses stemming from a in which Suffolk County sheriffs stopped him while he was driving the wrong way on Sunrise Highway in Sayville.

On Tuesday, Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said about 30 drivers saw Cerullo heading westbound on eastbound Sunrise Highway around midnight on Dec. 3 and called 911.

"The defendant drove at speeds up to and exceeding 100 miles per hour for more than nine miles," Spota said.

He said Cerullo, 54, was leaving a holiday party at the Bellport Country Club thrown by Dowling College, which has not released any statement regarding the arrest. Cerullo was providing financial services on a volunteer basis to the college, according to Kelly Kazemier, Dowling's director of communications.

Some published reports have said Cerullo was a candidate for the position of chief financial officer at Dowling, but "there was no contract in place for him to officially be named CFO," Kazemier said.

According to Spota, the bartender at the party said Cerullo had four or five martinis that night.

Cerullo has also been charged with speeding, driving on the shoulder of the road, failing to stay in designated lane, improper entrance to a controlled access highway, and driving the wrong way on a one way road. His attorney, Billy Keahon, could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.

Cerullo, who is free after posting $50,000 cash bail, is due back in court Jan. 24 for conference before Judge Stephen Braslow.

Cerullo's arrest is one of nine made on Long Island involving wrong-way drivers since Nov. 15. East Northport resident , 40, and Yaphank resident Timothy Griffin, 43, were also arraigned Tuesday for similar charges.

"[Tuesday's] arraignments are part of the troubling story of wrong way drivers in Suffolk," Spota said in a statement. "Driving while intoxicated is the cause of this phenomenon."

Patch will update this story as more information becomes available.