HOWARD LIPIN / Union-Tribune Lisa Maree Gaut tells her side of the Steve Foley shooting incident for the first time publicly while testifying in her trial Monday.

SAN DIEGO – The woman who was with Chargers linebacker Steve Foley when he was shot by an off-duty Coronado police officer testified Monday that she was trying to help the football player to safety when she got behind the wheel of his car.

Lisa Maree Gaut, 26, said she was still in the passenger's seat of the vehicle when the officer shot Foley in a Poway cul-de-sac. Gaut said she then got out of the car and climbed into the driver's seat.

“I yelled at (Foley) 'I'm just going to turn the car around,' ” she told a San Diego Superior Court jury, adding that she had difficulty operating Foley's customized Oldsmobile Cutlass.

Gaut testified she managed to maneuver the car into a three-point turn, finally coasting to a point alongside Foley, who was lying in the street. She said she was trying to get him to get into the car when sheriff's deputies arrived and arrested her.

“I drove that vehicle to help Steve and get him out of that situation, because he was on the street, shot and bleeding,” she said in court, tearing up occasionally during her testimony.

“That's the only reason I got in that car.”

Gaut is now on trial accused of trying to run over Officer Aaron Mansker during a confrontation on Travertine Court, near Foley's home. If convicted of felony and misdemeanor charges, including assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer and drunken driving, she could be sent to prison for up to five years.

Mansker, 24, testified earlier that he followed Foley's Oldsmobile from the Balboa Park area to Poway the morning of Sept. 3 because he suspected the driver was drunk. The officer, who was wearing jeans and a white T-shirt and driving his own black Mazda, said he identified himself as a police officer several times when he made contact with Foley during stops along the road – but he never showed Foley a badge.

Mansker testified that during their final confrontation on Travertine Court, Gaut – who had gotten behind the wheel of the Oldsmobile – drove straight at the officer, who was in the doorway of his Mazda with his gun drawn. Mansker said he fired at the Oldsmobile and later shot Foley, who was approaching on foot.

Mansker testified he saw Foley reach for his waistband, as if for a gun. Foley was unarmed.

Monday was Gaut's first opportunity to tell her version of what happened that morning after she and Foley left a nightclub in downtown San Diego and drove north to Poway. She said she met Foley a few days before the shooting at a bar in Grantville, and on Sept. 2 he called and asked her to meet him downtown.

Gaut testified that she and her friends followed Foley to Stingaree nightclub in the Gaslamp District where she socialized with several Charger players. She said she drank two Long Island iced teas, which Foley paid for.

Later, Gaut said, she and her companions met up with Foley in a parking lot after the bar closed and made plans to go to his house that night. She testified she got into Foley's car and her friends – including her aunt – followed in another vehicle.

At some point, Foley sped off, leaving the friends behind, Gaut said.

Gaut testified she fell asleep in the car and didn't wake up until she and Foley got off the freeway at Pomerado Road. She said she saw another car following closely behind them, flashing its high beams.

Contrary to the officer's testimony, Gaut said she never got out of the Oldsmobile before reaching Travertine Court and never heard Mansker identify himself as a police officer. She said she asked Foley who was in the car that was following them. He responded: “It's nobody.”

Before she was cross-examined, Gaut's lawyer, Raymond Vecchio, asked a judge to acquit Gaut on the assault charges. He argued that “no reasonable jury” could infer from the evidence that Gaut was trying to run down Mansker or that she could have known he was a police officer.

Judge Charles Rogers denied the request.

Testimony is expected to continue Tuesday.

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