LI CRIME BRIEFS

SMITHTOWN/Nativity figure returned

A baby Jesus missing from a Nativity scene at the Smithtown Library since Christmas Eve has been found on the front lawn of a Nesconset volunteer firefighter, officials said Tuesday.

The firefighter reported the find to his commissioner, Vincent Puleo, who is also the town clerk of Smithtown, Puleo said.

Puleo said he knew about the missing figure and arranged for its return to John Vigliante, owner of Branch Funeral Home, which puts up the Nativity scene and a menorah every year at the town's Christmas tree lighting ceremony on library grounds at North Country Road and Main Street.

"I guess that even the criminal mind has a fear of God," said Vigliante, 70.

In Nassau County, police said that a baby Jesus taken from a Nativity scene in front of St. Mary's Church on Bryant Avenue in Roslyn a couple of days after Christmas has not been returned.

Sixth Precinct detectives ask anyone with information to call Nassau County Crime Stoppers at 800-244-TIPS.

-- CARL MACGOWAN AND WILLIAM MURPHY

HUNTINGTON/Arrested for lewdness

A Huntington man has been arraigned on charges of public lewdness and endangering the welfare of a child after an incident involving two teenage girls, Suffolk County police said Tuesday.

Juan Romero, 35, is being held on a $2,500 bond after police arrested him Friday. His next appearance at First District Court in Central Islip is scheduled for Jan. 17.

Police said Romero, of 516 Oakwood Rd., stopped his car on Craven Street in Huntington Station at about 3:05 p.m. Thursday and made comments and committed a lewd act toward two 14-year-old girls.

-- GARY DYMSKI

EAST ISLIP/Teen charged with DWI

An East Islip teenager whose car ran off the Southern State Parkway and into the woods was arrested after a responding state trooper smelled alcohol on his breath and saw other signs of drunken driving, state police said.

Kenneth Risco, 18, was charged with DWI and several traffic infractions and was due to appear in First District Court in Central Islip on Jan. 23 to face the charges, police said.

The state trooper responded to a report of a one-car accident near exit 43 at 10:30 a.m. Sunday and he found Risco's red BMW in the woods off the eastbound lanes, police said.

Risco had glassy, watery and bloodshot eyes, failed sobriety tests and later registered a breath alcohol content of 0.13 percent, well above the .08 level for DWI, police said.

-- WILLIAM MURPHY

BETHPAGE/Sex charges against doc

A Bethpage pediatrician has been indicted on federal charges of sexual exploitation of children and health-care fraud, according to federal court papers.

Rakesh Punn, who has already been charged with similar conduct in Nassau County, is scheduled to be arraigned in U.S. District Court in Central Islip Wednesday on seven counts of sexual exploitation of children and 29 counts of health-care fraud.

The health-care fraud counts involve allegations that he submitted claims to various insurance companies for legitimate medical procedures and consultations, when he was actually exploiting his patients, according to the indictment filed Friday by federal prosecutor Allen Bode.

The "procedures and consultations had not been conducted for any medically accepted purpose, but rather had been conducted solely for the sexual gratification of the defendant," Bode wrote.

Punn has pleaded not guilty to similar charges in Nassau County, but the charges in federal court carry more severe penalties of up to 30 years in prison,

An attorney for Punn could not be reached for comment, and Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for Eastern District federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch declined to comment.

Punn has been held without bail in the Nassau County jail since July of 2010 on charges that he drugged and sexually abused females patients as young as 11-years-old, and videotaped his actions.

At times he committed the acts while the parents of his patients waited outside, according to Nassau County prosecutors, who are expected to take part in the federal prosecution.

-- ROBERT E. KESSLER