'I was in such fear for my life,' driver Ann Marie Drago told grand jury in activist's death case

A Patchogue woman told a grand jury she drove her Nissan Rogue forward on the day Evelyn Rodriguez was fatally crushed under it because she thought she saw a clear path to escape as she feared for her life.

Ann Marie Drago also said in her 2018 testimony that she was reacting after Rodriguez, who she knew to be the mother of a slain teen, and Rodriguez's companion threatened her after running up to her Nissan outside her mother's Brentwood home. 

“I was in such fear for my life," Drago told the grand jury, transcripts read in court on Tuesday quoted the defendant as saying.

In the Nissan were items from a memorial to the teen that prosecutors allege Drago stole.

Drago said in her testimony that the man called her a "[expletive] animal" before it looked like he and his companion moved to the Nissan's rear, Drago said.

"I felt like it was safe enough for me to just pull away," she added.

But Drago said that after she did, she felt a "thud" under one of her back tires. Her sport utility vehicle had run over and fatally injured the anti-gang activist.

Drago, 59, is now standing trial in Central Islip for charges including criminally negligent homicide after the death of Rodriguez, 50, of Brentwood.

On Tuesday, a Suffolk County jury heard the account Drago gave a grand jury in November 2018 before her indictment in the case.

The deadly encounter happened on Ray Court on Sept. 14, 2018, exactly two years after Drago's mother found the body of Rodriguez's 16-year-old daughter, Kayla Cuevas, in her backyard.

Federal prosecutors say MS-13 gang members killed Kayla and her 15-year-old friend Nisa Mickens — whose body police said was recovered on the corner of the same street a day before the discovery of the 16-year-old's remains.

Rodriguez became outspoken against gang violence after her daughter's death, testifying in a congressional hearing and meeting with President Donald Trump.

Drago faces up to 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison if Suffolk jurors find her guilty of the top charge against her.

Prosecutors say Rodriguez and Kayla's father, Freddy Cuevas, approached the Nissan and demanded the return of items Drago allegedly stole from a memorial for Kayla that Rodriguez had set up on the street ahead of a planned 6 p.m. vigil.

Prosecutors say Drago dismantled the memorial because potential buyers of her mother's house were due to visit and she didn't want to scare them off.

Drago wasn’t confronted with any physical threat or weapons before the crash and had criminal intent when she ran over Rodriguez, according to the Suffolk District Attorney's Office.

But Drago’s attorney, Stephen Kunken, contends the crash was a tragic accident. 

He says Drago, a nurse who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder related to a 2008 patient attack, was fleeing from a threat while “scared to death" when she ran over Rodriguez.

The Suffolk District Attorney's Office on Tuesday presented Drago's grand jury testimony to the jury in her trial.

For more than an hour, one prosecutor read the role of Drago from the witness stand as prosecutor Marc Lindemann read from his own words that day as he had questioned Drago.

Drago repeatedly stated she didn't see anyone in front of her vehicle before she drove forward.

"There was nobody on the front or side of my car. That's why I pulled away," she said at one point.

In that proceeding, Lindemann also repeatedly played a video of the deadly encounter that News 12 Long Island recorded that day while preparing to cover the 6 p.m. vigil.

"Sir, I'm sorry I can't look at it. I'm going to have nightmares. I can't look at my tires go over her," Drago said at the time.

The video showed multiple conflicts between the event itself and what Drago testified about recalling, including Rodriguez's position near the left front side of the Nissan when Drago drove forward.

The motorist admitted to having parts of the memorial to Kayla that included a flower wreath and a large portrait in her Nissan at the time of the confrontation.

Drago told grand jurors she got a call from her real estate agent saying a neighbor had called and asked for memorial items to be cleaned up before Drago went there and trashed some items and put others in her Nissan.

She admitted then that she knew the items weren't her property, but insisted she didn't know a vigil was planned for that evening. She said a neighbor who pulled up told her of memorial items: "Just take it away and go."

Drago also testified her priority "was cleaning up at the request of the neighbors," and that the Town of Islip had told her mother that it was her responsibility to clean up her property.

Earlier Tuesday, Drago's then-fiance, Mace Scanlon, testified he "no longer saw" Rodriguez "in the front windshield" when Drago drove forward — saying the deadly crash happened so fast it felt "like a flash."

He also said that before Drago drove forward he “was becoming fearful” of Rodriguez and Cuevas, who were “outside the car yelling and banging," and that he'd witnessed Drago struggle with PTSD in the past.

Early Wednesday, the jury heard about Drago's statement to the police, her 911 call and from a medical examiner.

The prosecution then rested its case, and the defense case is scheduled to begin its case Wednesday afternoon.