BREWSTER – Members of an immigration-reform group formed in the wake of 9/11 came to Brewster yesterday to decry the recent deaths of a mother and daughter who police say were killed by an illegal immigrant driving drunk.Members of 9/11 Families for a Secure America called for tougher enforcement of immigration laws in the wake of the June 8 deaths of Lori Donohue, 37, and her daughter, Kayla, 8. The two were struck, police said, by a truck driven by Zacaria Conses-Garcia as they were leaving the girl’s dance class.
The deaths have united many in the community in their opposition to drunken driving and illegal immigration.
Authorities said that Conses-Garcia, 35, was in the country illegally from Guatemala and that he was driving without a license and with a blood-alcohol content nearly twice the legal limit when he ran over the Donohues.
He is being held without bail at the Putnam County jail, charged with two counts of aggravated homicide.
Ed Kowalski, a director of 9/11 Families, and Peter Gadiel, its president and co-founder, blamed the Donohues’ deaths on lax enforcement of the law.
“The recent deaths of Lori Donohue and her 8-year-old daughter Kayla would not have occurred if Zacaria Conses-Garcia had not entered the country illegally, been employed illegally and allowed to drive,” said Kowalski, who got involved in 9/11 Families after his niece, Elizabeth Butler, 17, of North Salem, was raped and murdered in June 2005 by an illegal immigrant she met while working at a Croton Falls market.
Conses-Garcia has been in the country for several years and worked on horse farms in Florida and North Salem.
The Ford F350 truck he drove is registered in Florida to Valerie Renihan, a northern Westchester horse trainer who, through an attorney, denied giving him permission to use it. Renihan had employed him in the past and leased a Tonetta Lake house where he lived.
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Kowalski praised the efforts of Putnam County District Attorney Adam Levy to increase the charges against Conses-Garcia and have him held without bail, but called on Levy to do more.
He said authorities should further investigate to ensure that Conses-Garcia is who he claims to be, that they should determine if the registered owner of the truck also holds its title, and to investigate if Renihan broke any laws by employing him.
“Every employer of an illegal is a co-conspirator in any crime committed by that illegal,” he said.
Gadiel, a Kent, Conn., resident, formed 9/11 Families after his son, James, a 23-year-old assistant trader for Cantor Fitzgerald, died in the attacks on the World Trade Center.
He believes his son and others who died on Sept. 11, 2001, would still be alive if the country properly enforced its immigration laws.
Gadiel said that although some media outlets, including The Journal News, have described his organization’s members as being angry, he said they have a right to feel that way.
“We are angry because people are dying,” he said.
Patti Hupp of Brewster had organized marches in the village after the Donohue tragedy to bring attention to drunk driving and illegal immigration.
“My community has become a haven for hiring illegal workers and for public drunkenness,” Hupp said. “Enough is enough.”http://www.lohud.com/article/2009906240333
