Accused says boyfriend drove van that hit Cottonwood school bus

MARSHALL, MINN. - The way Olga Franco tells it, she was a passenger the afternoon of Feb. 19, heading toward work in Cottonwood and arguing with her boyfriend, who was behind the wheel, when she saw the school bus.

She yelled at him to be careful, but the van's brakes weren't working well, she said, and they went through the intersection and into the bus.

Franco is now charged with criminal vehicular homicide in the deaths of four schoolchildren who were on the bus and has become a flashpoint in the debate on undocumented immigrants.

Speaking publicly Tuesday for the first time, Franco, 24, cried off and on throughout a 90-minute interview in a Lyon County jail meeting room. She spoke softly and looked down at the table often, but she remained adamant about her innocence.

Her boyfriend, Francisco, was driving, she said, and he ran off because he didn't want to be deported to Mexico. Before leaving, he threatened her, she said, saying if she told anyone her life would be at risk. Her attorney declined to let her speak about what specifically happened right after the crash.

Authorities say they haven't been able to confirm speculation that anyone else was in the van. The day after the crash, State Patrol Lt. Mark Peterson said that the driver of the van was alone in the vehicle.

"We believe that she was the driver," State Patrol Lt. Brian West said Tuesday. "As information comes forward, we'll review the information that comes our way." They'll rely on the courts to assess her claims, he said.

Lyon County Attorney Rick Maes said Tuesday he's no longer commenting on the case. Last week, however, he told the Marshall Independent newspaper: "I do not know of any information that would even remotely suggest that there was a different driver." He said Franco was in the driver's seat "and had to be extricated from the vehicle."

Authorities say Franco initially told the State Patrol she was the driver of the van, and also said she had stopped at the stop sign and the bus hit her.

Her attorney, Manuel Guerrero, said Tuesday that he has reviewed statements she made to authorities right after the crash and believes she never did say she was driving.

Franco initially told authorities that her name was Alianiss Nunez Morales, but officials later learned that the real Morales was from Puerto Rico and that Franco was in the country illegally. She has been charged with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide in the deaths of Jesse Javens, Hunter Javens, Reed Stevens and Emilee Olson, as well as other traffic charges.

She and her boyfriend, whom authorities have said is Francisco Sangabriel-Mendoza, both face federal identity theft charges.

The crash site, at the intersection of Hwy. 23 and County Road 24 outside of Marshall, is about 140 miles west of the Twin Cities. The van broadsided the Cottonwood school bus carrying 28 students from Lakeview School, killing the four children and hospitalizing more than a dozen.

A vow not to drive

Speaking through an interpreter after agreeing to an interview request, Franco said Tuesday that she spends her days walking around her cell, depressed, and reading the Bible. She sat in prison garb with a cast up to her knee covering her broken right leg.

"They brought me here in an unjust way for something that I didn't do," she said early in the interview. Then, later: "I never expected something like this to happen."

She came to the United States from Guatemala, she said, trying to make money to send to her family. She said she rode in a trailer through Mexico, lying with about 40 other people under woodpiles for 38 hours with one break. Then she walked in the desert for five days, crossing the border in Arizona.

She lived with a sister in Virginia for a few months, then moved to Montevideo with her sister and worked at the Jennie-O plant for eight months. It was there that she got documents under someone else's name, she said. And it was there, about 2 1/2 years ago, that she decided she should learn to drive and took her sister's car out for the first time. She found a level street and drove slowly, she said. But she says she ended up getting stopped and ticketed, and vowed never to drive again.

She moved to Marshall with her aunt and found a job making cabinets. She grew tired of the night shift, so she headed to Willmar to work in another Jennie-O plant.

It was there she met her boyfriend. It was then, she said, her life changed.

The two moved in together weeks after meeting and eventually moved to Minneota after taking jobs in Cottonwood. Francisco, she said, was "really jealous with me." They argued over the clothes she wore, she said, and he often took off and left her at home. He controlled her money; she tried to save up money to separate from him, she said.

On Feb. 19, she said, they drove to work on their normal route and argued once again about her clothes. The brakes on the van had been squeaky and failing a bit, she said.

He often drove fast, she said, and she always told him to slow down.

"When we got to the part where ... he was supposed to make the stop, and all that, he turned to look at me," she said. "Then he yelled at me, and then I said to him that he had to be careful, to be careful because there was a bus that was coming, that there was a bus that was coming."

After the crash, she said, he ran away.

Though a relative told the Pioneer Press that the boyfriend wedged Franco into the driver's seat before fleeing, Franco disputed that. Guerrero declined to let her give details: "I'd rather not get into the biomechanics of where her body went upon the impact of the crash," he said.

Franco said she thinks about the accident often. "Really, I would say an 'I'm sorry' I guess in the name of Francisco," she said. "And then ask them to forgive me, and to forgive him, because I know that an accident can happen to any one of us."

She says she's putting her faith in God that the truth will prevail.

"I think about the fact that the person who has to pay for this is Francisco, and not me," she said. "I think that he's the one that's going to have to take responsibility or show his face for that."

Terri Hutchinson, aunt of crash victim Emilee Olson, said she hasn't been paying much attention to Franco, but that if Franco is at fault it would help families heal if they heard an apology.

"Until we get to that point, I think people are just real apprehensive about even discussing her," Hutchinson said.

And if Franco was not the driver, she said "then I wish we knew who was."

Pam Louwagie • 612-673-7102