Two men arraigned for flying drones from restricted Long Island

BOSTON, December 16, 2024 – Two men were charged in Dorchester BMC today with three counts each connected to flying drones in hazardous air space around Long Island and Boston Harbor on Saturday, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden announced.

ROBERT DUFFY, 42, of Charlestown, and JEREMY FOLCIK, 32, of Bridgewater, were each charged with trespassing, breaking and entering, and violating a municipal ordinance or bylaw. Judge Erika Reis released the men on personal recognizance and ordered them to stay away from Long Island and to not operate drones.  Both will return to court February 6 for pre-trial hearings.

Boston Police responded to the abandoned homeless and hospital campus on Long Island via patrol boat at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday to investigate reports of unmanned aircraft being flown in hazardous proximity to Logan Airport.  As officers searched the site they saw a light on in a building and a person walk by a window. Officers climbed to the second floor of the building by fire escape stairs and conducted a room search.  Officers encountered Duffy and Folcik in the building.  Duffy told officers he had been flying a drone and that it was in his backpack.  Duffy and Folcik told officers they had been transported to the island on a boat owned by a third man.  They said they did not know the man’s name. Boston Police asked a State Police patrol boat unit for assistance in locating the third man but he was not apprehended.

Using data from the drone’s serial number officers identified six recorded flights on Saturday and seven recorded flights on December 7.

“No trespassing” signs are posted on structures throughout the shuttered Long Island campus.

“There are many areas in Massachusetts to safely operate drones. But flying them from an area closed to the public while creating a potential public safety hazard in the process is conduct that will land people in court to answer to criminal charges, which is exactly what happened here,” Hayden said.

James Borghesani, Chief of Communications