(SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y.) – Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that Evelyn Calderon, 46, of Mastic, and Ryan Benitez, 37, of East Hampton, have been indicted on multiple counts of Bribe Receiving in the Third Degree and Official Misconduct, for allegedly accepting monetary bribes in exchange for providing building permits and related documents while employed at the Town of East Hampton Building Department.
“Public servants are expected to act with honesty and fairness in the course of their duties,” said District Attorney 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.”
According to the investigation, 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 and Benitez 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 can not 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 7 years in prison if convicted on the top count. Calderon is being represented by Edward Burke Jr., Esq., and Benitez is being represented by Austin Manghan, Esq.
This case is being prosecuted by Alyssa Costantino of the Public Corruption Bureau, and the investigation was conducted by the District Attorney’s Office’s Public Corruption Squad, with special assistance from Deputy Sheriff Sergeant Matthew Matz of the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office.