Palisades-News-March-18-2015

March 18, 2015 Palisades News Page 23
April Group
Show Seeks
Art Entries
The Pacific Palisades Art Association
will host its April Group Show, featuring
painting on canvas, painting under
glass and sculpture. This show is open
to all paid members. Art may be submitted
at the Palisades Branch library
from 10 a.m. to noon on Wednesday,
March 25.
The entry fee is $10 per item and
there is a maximum of three entries
in each category. All work must have
a sturdy hanging wire across the
back, with a maximum size of 42
inches on any side. Framing should
be of professional quality or canvases
may have wrapped sides. Sculpture is
picked up after judging, about 1 p.m.
March 25, and brought back for the
reception only.
A reception and awards ceremony
will be held on Saturday, April 4,
from noon to 2 p.m. Ribbons will be
awarded in each category. (The show
in November will include art in the
mixed-media, photo, print and drawing
categories.)
Palisades Postal Worker
Sentenced for Hit-and-Run
Pacific Palisades postal worker Marguerite
Dao Vuong, 67, was sentenced
to three years in prison for a December
2013 hit-and-run crash that killed 23-
year-old David Pregerson. Her husband,
Michael, 67, received one year in jail and
three years’ probation for claiming he drove
the vehicle at the time of the crash.
At the sentencing on March 6, Deputy
District Attorney Marna Miller told Los
Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathryn
Solorzano that Marguerite Vuong, who was
driving to work at the Post Office facility on
La Cruz, turned her vehicle around after
it struck Pregerson. Miller said it was clear
that Vuong drove back by his body before
she went home and switched cars so she
could drive to work without notifying authorities
about what had happened.
Judge Solorzano was also told that
Vuong’s husband was responsible for having
the car’s windshield replaced after the
crash, resulting in destruction of evidence.
Pregerson, a recent UCLA graduate, a son
of U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson and
a grandson of U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
Judge Harry Pregerson, was walking
on the 600 block of Chautauqua Boulevard.
According to the L.A. Times, “The victim,
drunk after a party, was struck as he
was walking home about 3 a.m. For
months, the case went unsolved, but surveillance
videos from homeowners in the
residential area where the collision took
place helped lead police to identify Marguerite
as the driver. He was found later
in the bushes by the side of the road by a
Palisades Patrol officer, transported to the
hospital and died four days later.
“In a secret recording made at the police
station, Marguerite told her husband
to ‘lie about everything.’”
A City News Service report noted the
victim’s father called what had happened
a “horror” and said his son had been “annihilated
by a three-ton vehicle.”
“You never get over the loss of a child,” he
said. “Every day is just pain management.”
Dean Pregerson wondered, “What kind
of person is capable of leaving a broken
body on a highway?” The family and the
Los Angeles City Council each offered
$50,000 rewards for information leading to
the driver’s arrest and conviction.
Dao Vuong’s son Andrew, an emergencyroom
physician, told the Pregersons how
deeply they were affected by the tragedy
and that his parents were not evil, but had
made mistakes, and asked for forgiveness.
Another of the couple’s sons, Johnny,
said his parents came to the United States
from war-torn Vietnam. “They are not
monsters,” he said. “Ultimately they are
imperfect people.”
In addition to her state prison sentence,
Marguerite Vuong’s California driver’s license
will be revoked for a one-year period that will
begin when she is paroled from state prison.
Rain Report
The February 28 drizzle plus the March
1 downpour resulted in 1.01 inches of rain,
per an official Los Angeles County rain
gauge, located at Carol Leacock’s home on
Bienveneda Avenue.
Deputy assistant rainmeister Ted Mackie
said normal to date is 12.48 inches; currently
Pacific Palisades has received 7.59
inches. Last year’s total at this time was 5.94
inches. He reminded us that 2006-2007 was
the driest year in recent history, when only
4.11 inches of rain were reported.
STYLE FOR EVERYONE
20% OFF FOR FIRST TIME CLIENTS
Full-service hair, skincare, and beauty studio serving the
Palisades, Malibu, and Westside community. With adjacent
blow-dry bar and professional beauty supply store.
Blow Dry - $40+
Coloring - $75+
Cuts & Design - $95+
Men's Cuts - $50
Children Styles - $30+
1016 Swarthmore Ave • Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 • (310) 454-1885