Updated: 11:21 p.m. ET July 22, 2007
CENTEREACH, N.Y. - A man trying to stop a friend from driving drunk after a block party was run over by the woman’s car and killed, police said.
Louis Wiederer was holding onto the driver’s side of Jesenia Vega’s car Saturday evening when she took off and dragged him, Suffolk County police said. Wiederer, 26, lost his grip and fell under the vehicle.
Wiederer had argued with Vega at the block party to prevent her from driving, and he had warned her, “You can’t drive like that,” witnesses said.
Vega, 27, was arrested at the scene and was charged with driving while intoxicated. She pleaded not guilty Sunday and was being held in jail.
Beatriz Vega said her niece is “very sweet, very nice, from a good family” and that she had never seen her drinking.
Drunk but intent on driving, Jesenia Vega fought off her boyfriend as she left a Centereach block party and got into her car, Suffolk police said.
"You're going to get arrested," Louis Wiederer, 26, of Westbury, warned his girlfriend, a witness heard them arguing late Saturday. "You can't drive like that!"
"Leave me alone!" she said.
With that, Vega, 27, of Carle Place, put her key in the ignition and drove off -- as Wiederer hung onto an open window. She continued north, dragging him on the pavement, then underneath her car, before coming to a stop three blocks later, police and witnesses said.
Jay Steiner, 60, a retired nurse, who lives near the scene, rushed to the man's aid.
"Oh, my God," Steiner recalled Vega telling him. "Don't tell me I just killed my fiance."
Wiederer was pronounced dead at the scene. Vega was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated. She was arraigned yesterday at First District Court in Central Islip, where she was remanded to the county jail without bail.
As friends and relatives comforted Wiederer's family yesterday afternoon, his mother struggled for words to describe the sudden death of her eldest son.
"It's just a loss right now that's indescribable," Barbara Dempsey said through tears.
Dempsey recalled telling her son goodbye Saturday afternoon as he left for what was supposed to be a jovial evening at a friend's summer barbecue.
"Have a good time," Dempsey told him. "I love you."
"I love you, too," he replied.
Wiederer and his girlfriend arrived at the annual Flower Lane block party, where families set up food in their yards and invite over friends and neighbors. At about 9 p.m., Vega left and headed toward her car at the corner of Garden Lane and Tree Road, and the arguing began, neighbors said.
"It looked like he was hitting her, but he was trying to stop her," neighbor Nick Montanino, 49, recalled yesterday.
"She was totally irrational," Montanino said of Vega.
Vega slipped in the vehicle and drove off, as Wiederer grabbed onto the open driver's side window. She fishtailed down the block, with her boyfriend's feet dragging underneath the car until his shoes came off, Steiner said. Somewhere along the way, Wiederer became lodged underneath the vehicle, leaving a trail of skid marks and blood.
Steiner watched in horror as the car sped past two stop signs, he said, and then came to an abrupt stop at the intersection of Tree Road and Vine Court.
"The whole back of the car was enveloped in white smoke," Steiner said. He rushed to the car and crawled beneath it, where he found Wiederer's badly injured body, he said.
There were no signs of life.
Steiner asked Vega if she was hurt. She said no and asked about her fiance, he said.
He asked Vega where her fiance was, Steiner said.
"The car," she said frantically, pointing at the vehicle.
Steiner said firefighters raised the car off Wiederer's body, but couldn't keep it elevated. Then they shoved wood under it to prop it up.
Det. Sgt. Michael Fitzharris said Vega consented to a blood-alcohol test, the results of which were not available yesterday.
A woman who answered the door at Vega's house yesterday declined to comment.
"We can't talk about it at this time," she said.
Vega's aunt, Beatriz Vega, of East Meadow, said she did not know the details of the accident, but said that her niece is "very sweet, very nice, from a good family."
"I've never seen her drinking," Vega said.
Wiederer's family said he was a graduate of Clarke High School in Westbury, where he played on their championship football team, and he also played with the Central Nassau All-Star Little League team. He briefly attended college in Florida and was working in the concrete business and playing softball for a men's league, they said.
"He cared about other people more than he cared about himself," said his brother, Michael Wiederer, 23, of Westbury. "He's the other half of me. That's half of me that's gone."
I'm sure she is a very nice murderer, she can be the sweetest girl in prison and her good family can come visit her.
__________________
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