Postal Worker in Fatal Hit-and-Run Showed No Remorse, Says Witness

Graphic witness testimony describing 23-year-old Palisadian David Pregerson’s labored breaths as he lay on the side of the road clinging to life after being struck by a vehicle on Chautauqua Boulevard was part of evidence presented at a preliminary hearing on Monday, Oct. 20.

Judge Mark Windham said there was sufficient evidence presented to move the case to trial.

Husband and wife Marguerite and Michael Vuong are facing separate felony charges in the fatal hit-and-run collision that killed Pregerson, a Palisades High School and UCLA graduate who was a promising film director.

Marguerite Vuong is charged with one count of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and Michael Vuong is charged with one count of accessory to hit and run causing death. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.

Prosecutors believe Marguerite was driving a 1990 Volvo station wagon that struck Pregerson in the 600 block of Chautauqua Boulevard on Dec. 27, 2013 at about 3 a.m.

Pregerson, whose father and grandfather are both federal judges, was found lying on a parkway near Sunset and Chautauqua, according to witness testimony.

James Wilson, a Palisades Patrol/Gates Security guard, said he was following up on a call about a possible body on the road when he heard plastic crunching beneath the wheels of his patrol car, later identified as Volvo car parts.

He then noticed Pregerson lying atop some bushes at about 3:15 a.m. and called his security office operators who then contacted emergency responders.

Friends of Pregerson told the Palisadian-Post in previous interviews that he was walking home from a nearby house party that night. Blood tests taken at the hospital after the collision measured Pregerson’s blood-alcohol level at .21, according to evidence presented at the hearing.

He succumbed to his injuries four days later at UCLA Medical Center on New Year’s Eve.

David’s father Dean Pregerson, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court; grandfather Harry Pregerson, a federal judge with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; and grandmother Bernadine were present in court as the witnesses gave their graphic testimony.

Police believe Marguerite was on her way to her job at the U.S Postal annex on La Cruz Drive when she struck Pregerson.

Surveillance footage taken from a home in the 300 block of Chautauqua shows Pregerson walking up the street. Footage from another home shows that moments later a Volvo headed north in the same direction, said Senior LAPD Det. John Skaggs.

While the collision was not caught on camera, the glow of the Volvo’s break lights could be seen on video. Moments later the car is caught by another camera stopping at and then running the red light to turn left onto Sunset Boulevard, Skaggs said in his testimony.

Within seconds, a Volvo station wagon is seen in video footage going the opposite direction on Chautauqua toward Pacific Coast Highway, he said.

Video time stamps indicate the footage was shot moments after 3 a.m., which is during the time prosecutors say the incident occurred.

Serving as a witness for the prosecution, U.S. Postmaster Charles Hearne said Marguerite, a 28-year postal employee, was working as a sorter in the postal annex on La Cruz Drive at the time of the incident.

Due to the peak holiday season, she was expected at work at 3 a.m. on Dec. 27 but did not arrive until 3:55 a.m., Hearne said.

It was a postal employee and colleague of Marguerite’s named Dwight Russ, who first spotted Pregerson lying on the ground in the early morning hours.

Russ did not have a cell phone with him so he notified a Palisades Patrol/Gates Security guard he saw near Starbucks, who then relayed the message to security guard James Wilson, Skaggs explained during his testimony.

Deputy District Attorney Marna Miller, who is prosecuting the case, asked Hearne if Marguerite worked in an area where she would sort the Post newspaper along with other mail for delivery.

Hearne said yes, adding that as the newspaper’s coverage intensified and after a photo showing a Volvo similar to the one seen the night of the collision was printed in the Post, Vuong’s coworkers began suspecting her of being involved.

Hearne said Marguerite had driven an early 1990s gray Volvo station wagon, which she called “her baby,” but employees noticed she was no longer driving that car to work.

When suspicions arose in the workplace, one of Marguerite’s coworkers contacted Skaggs, which led to the discovery of the Volvo, her husband’s arrest on May 1, 2014 and eventually her own.

According to testimony from a police translator, a video taken inside a police station captured the Vuongs, speaking in Vietnamese, plotting a coverup, in which the husband would take the fall.

But after detectives discovered the ruse, they charged the husband as an accessory and arrested Marguerite on felony charges May 28, 2014.

Even after her own arrest, Marguerite kept going to work as if nothing had happened, Hearne said in his testimony.

Her coworkers kept wondering why she was “still coming to work,” Hearne said, adding she appeared to show “no remorse.”

Hearne said that sometime later, Marguerite, who was out on bail, requested a meeting in his office.

Marguerite spoke to him about retiring and then, “out of nowhere,” she admitted to being involved in the collision, Hearne said, adding this was the first time she had talked about the incident.

“I was more stunned than anything,” Hearne said. “She believed the young man was going to rob her.”

Prosecutor Miller then asked Hearne what he said in reply to Marguerite’s comment about being afraid Pregerson was going to rob her.

“I said, ‘When the kid was on the ground after you hit him, did you think then he was going to get up and rob you?’ She didn’t respond to that,” Hearne said on the witness stand.

The Vuongs, whose attorneys presented no evidence at the hearing, are due back in court for an arraignment Nov. 3.