Woman Says Her Life Was in Danger When She Struck Man in Street

A former law student testified today that she thought her life was in danger when she did a U-turn in her car on a crowded street outside a bar near Lake Merritt in Oakland two years ago, hitting and seriously injuring a man. Taking the witness stand in her trial on four felony counts in Alameda County Superior Court, Megan Zato, 28, said, “I was just trying to get out of there” after she had been punched and had her cellphone stolen in a confrontation with a crowd of men in front of the Oakland Public Library on 14th Street between Madison and Oak streets shortly before 1 a.m. on Oct. 5, 2013.

Zato is charged with assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury, driving under the influence and hit-and-run for striking 27-year-old James Roda of Oakland with her 1984 Mercedes-Benz while he was in the middle of 14th Street.

According to the evidence in her case, Zato had been thrown out of the Ruby Room bar, which is across the street from the library, for drunkenly bothering and insulting patrons who were playing pool. Zato said that after she left the Ruby Room, she threatened to call police on a man who was vandalizing the library and then got into a confrontation with the man and a group of his friends.

Zato, who was a first semester student at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco but now works as a paralegal, said she was sitting in her car after she had been punched and had her phone stolen and then heard banging on her car that sounded like a gun going off. Zato, who spoke softly and blinked often in her full day on the witness stand, said she then sped off because she feared for her life and accidentally hit Roda, an Oakland man who was working as a server and a fry cook at an Alameda restaurant and had just come from the Ruby Room. But in a withering cross-examination, prosecutor Adam Maldonado suggested that Zato intentionally hit Roda because she thought she was justified after she was assaulted in front of the library.

Maldonado told Zato, “When you took your car and hit a person who had nothing to do with the assault, it’s not self-defense.” Maldonado said, “You’re trying to convince the jury that there was an emergency that required you to drive away” and that she was in fear but Zato insisted that truly was the case. Oakland police said Zato fled the scene after she struck Roda but officers were able to arrest her nearby in the 100 block of Lake Merritt Boulevard a few minutes later.

Police said Zato had a strong odor of alcohol, slurred and slow speech as well as bloodshot, watery and droopy eyes. When she was tested two hours after she hit Roda, she had a blood-alcohol level of 0.16 percent, twice the legal limit. Roda was hospitalized for six months with serious brain injuries that will challenge him for the rest of his life and is now legally blind. He suffers from seizures and has memory problems. A large group of his family members and friends have been attending Zato’s trial. Zato’s attorney, Megan Burns, told jurors in her opening statement last week that she will ask them to acquit Zato of all charges.

Maldonado told Zato today that she was a victim of an assault and a robbery but “your actions afterward are what put you here on trial” on multiple felony charges. Noting that Zato swore at and insulted Oakland police officers and paramedics who responded to the incident, Maldonado said, “Your demeanor was horrible the whole night.”

When he asked Zato if she would agree that she was “a nasty person” that night, Zato hesitated and then said, “at times.” Zato’s trial is nearing its conclusion and Maldonado and Burns will present their closing arguments late this week or early next week.

By Bay City News

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