Ann Marie Drago Sentenced to Probation in High-Profile Case

In the highly publicized case of the death of an anti-gang activist, Evelyn Rodriguez, Ann Marie Drago, 63, of Patchogue, was sentenced to five years of probation for murder. As the grieving mother was killed during a dispute regarding a memorial for Rodriguez’s daughter, such decision has caused an uproar among the community and her family. The victim was the main opponent of violence of MS-13 gang, and the incident involved an argument over the commemoration and a memorial picturing a basketball and flowers on the site where Kayla Cuevas, Rodriguez’s daughter, was murdered alongside her friend in 2016.

When the police came to take a statement, Rodriguez and about a dozen of her people had blocked Drago’s automobile because the upset mother demanded to know who was responsible for the disappearance of the bouquet of flowers and destroyed the picture that was being used to sell the house of Drago’s mother that was several feet away, as the woman thought it deterred buyers, in particular two couples who were coming for the second showing. The Suffolk County district attorney recommended a prison sentence of up to three years, but the court ruled for probation on the premise that Drago already paid a terrible price for her actions.

The victim’s family and the majority of the community view the decision negatively and claim that the loss was too high for simple probation. The slain woman’s partner Freddy Cuevas stated that all he could do is sit there and cry because his heart is broken, and it will stay broken. The process had been lengthy, with two previous trials that resulted in an overturned guilty verdict and a deadlocked jury.