Jul 10, 2012 5:01 PM

Two men were arrested after they tried to sail a boat past a security boundary on Georgica Pond on Sunday while a fundraiser for Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, was taking place at Ron Perelman’s estate in Wainscott, the Creeks.

East Hampton Village Police charged David A. Fink, 64, and Simon V. Kinsella, 47, both of Wainscott, with obstructing governmental administration, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, two misdemeanors and a violation, at about 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Mr. Fink sent out a statement the next day asserting that he and Mr. Kinsella had been exercising their right to freedom of speech “while scrupulously avoiding the shoreline and any possible perception they were seeking to enter into East Hampton Village or Mr. Perelman’s property.” The sailing excursion, Mr. Fink said later, had been a thwarted attempt “to exercise our First Amendment rights, and we had certain signs to express our views against Romney, all in perfectly civilized language.”

“We’re opposed to his opposition to national health care and his opposition to repealing DOMA,” Mr. Fink said, referring to the Defense of Marriage Act. “We find him to be a total hypocrite.”

Mr. Fink said that the protest signs that he and Mr. Kinsella, who is his fiance, had taken along would not have been visible to guests “a mile away” from the fundraiser.

According to East Hampton Village Police, the two men were sailing a 12-foot catboat, the Trumpeter, while an East Hampton Village Police officer and an East Hampton Town harbormaster were on special assignment, at the request of the Secret Service, aboard an East Hampton Town Marine Patrol boat in Georgica Pond. The officers, who were in uniform, ordered the sailors “not less than three times to halt their approach,” a police report said, but were ignored.

The sailboat struck the police vessel and its occupants were directed to lower the mainsail and stop, the report said, but they refused. When a Village Police officer tried to arrest them, Mr. Fink jumped into the water and swam and waded toward the shore of Mr. Perelman’s property, where he began to shout and curse at guests who had gathered for the event, police said. Mr. Kinsella allegedly struggled with a police officer on the boat until he was handcuffed and brought to shore.

Mr. Fink and Mr. Kinsella told a vastly different story in their statement. They called the arrest an “assault” on themselves and the democratic process as well as the First Amendment, the Dongan Patent, and municipal and local law. They accused the Village Police chief of trying to curry favor with Mr. Romney and Mr. Perelman while sipping champagne at the party “and being entertained by the assault.”

They said the Marine Patrol boat rammed the sailboat, that an officer forced Mr. Fink’s head underwater, and that he was denied medical treatment at headquarters after his blood pressure rose to such a high level that emergency medical technicians thought their equipment was faulty.

The statement also accused Village Police of acting outside their jurisdiction, adding that East Hampton Village Administrator Larry Cantwell had confirmed that that was the case.

Mr. Cantwell refuted that claim on Monday. He said Mr. Fink had emailed a Freedom of Information Law request for specific documents relating to enforcement agreements between the East Hampton Town Trustees and the village and that “I didn’t confirm anything other than the fact that no record had been found for the documents that he requested.”

Mr. Fink in turn disputed Mr. Cantwell’s account on Tuesday. He forwarded a followup email to Mr. Cantwell in which he suggested that a lawsuit in state or federal court for unlawful arrest might settle the matter if the issue of territorial jurisdiction could not be clarified locally.

Village Police Chief Jerry Larsen said he would not comment on the arrest or the charges pending their resolution in court. “I stand fully behind my officer,” he said of Village Police Sergeant Jeffrey Erickson, who made the arrests, on Monday.

The chief also said he was not a guest at the Romney party, but rather was in full uniform on Montauk Highway in front of the house assisting other police officers. The only time he was on the Perelman property, he said, was when he was called to assist during the scene onshore. Secret Service and Mr. Perelman’s private staff were handling security on the estate, he said.

“Nobody else seemed to have a problem” with not passing the boundary staked out by the Marine Patrol boat, Chief Larsen said.