Pawling woman accused of violence against protesters gives her side of story as new cellphone video of incident surfaces
Annette Strehle, 52 of Pawling, disputed the information in her charging documents and cellphone video that was anonymously shared Tuesday with News 12.
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A woman accused of punching and shoving protestors to the ground along Route 22 in Pawling shared her side of the story with News 12, saying she was baited into leaving her car on a highway and accosting the group.
Annette Strehle, 52 of Pawling, disputed the information in her charging documents and cellphone video that was anonymously shared Tuesday with News 12.
Strehle said the group of senior citizen protestors shouted rude comments toward her as she was rolling up to a red-light Saturday afternoon at Route 22 and East Main Street, which led her to exit her car and walk across two lanes of traffic to confront the seniors.
The seniors were protesting the recent fatal shooting of Renee Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis.
"I ripped up her sign, and took her glasses and broke those," Strehle said over the phone Tuesday afternoon of one of the protesters, "but I never laid a hand on any of them."
The cellphone video begins after Strehle had already crossed the street while she is in a verbal altercation with the protestors and just before she appears to push two women to the ground, throw their phones and break one woman's glasses.
"When she knocked me down, she grabbed the phone I had in my hand and threw it in the woods," protestor Stephanie Rogers said.
Just after the second woman is pushed down Strehle walks back to her car as one protester shouts for someone to "call the police."
Strehle was arrested a short time later and charged with two counts of criminal mischief with intent to damage property.
"There were three women and one man who were harassing me while I was in a moving vehicle," Strehle said. "There was a guy coaching them like they were paid agitators."
According to Strehle's charging documents provided by Pawling Court, the women who gave statements to police are all from the area and said no one has ever paid them to protest.
They have been regularly protesting at the same intersection for years.
Pawling resident and former Republican mayor Glenn Carey said Tuesday some residents need to recognize what truly happened Saturday.
"I think it's opened some eyes that what those who were victimized actually claimed was true," he said. "I'm grateful there's a video to back it up. Otherwise it would allow people to continue to say, 'Well maybe it didn't happen' or 'It didn't happen that way.' And it did."
Strehle said she regrets exiting her vehicle, though she did it to defend herself and her views.
"It's a quiet, peaceful community. We all get along here. It's a conservative, MAGA community," Strehle said. "This side needs to be heard. Nobody stands up and tells the truth anymore."
Strehle will be arraigned Feb. 10 in Pawling Court on the two counts of criminal mischief.
She said she plans to plead not guilty to one count and guilty to the other because she admits to breaking one of the protestor's eyeglasses.
