The sister of an accused hit-and-run driver who mowed down an elderly Staten Island couple delivering canned food to a church on Thanksgiving Eve was arrested yesterday for allegedly staging a cover-up to protect her brother.
Mirsada Nikeva, 30, a Staten Island public-school teacher, faces a misdemeanor charge of filing a false police report by telling cops that the van involved in the fatal crash had been stolen, sources said.
Authorities claim her younger brother, Almir Lekperic, 26, barreled into Peter Sabados, 78, and his wife Lillian, 77, as they crossed a street to drop off cans for the food drive at Our Lady Queen of Peace Church in New Dorp.
After the crash, Lekperic — whose driver’s license has been suspended a stunning 29 times — allegedly convinced his sister to lie to cops in a desperate attempt to dodge criminal charges.
In a change of heart, Lekperic turned himself in on Thanksgiving morning, and admitted he’d been involved in “an accident,” court papers show. He also directed investigators to the spot where he’d ditched the van.
“I was in an accident earlier, and I know where the van is,” Lekperic said, according to a criminal complaint made public yesterday. “It’s by [Susan] Wagner High School, on the corner. It’s a white van.”
Lekperic, a home-improvement contractor, was freed on $50,000 bail bond yesterday. He faces two counts of leaving the scene of an accident that resulted in death and one count of third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle — charges that carry a possible seven-year sentence.
Lekperic’s license was most recently suspended in September, when he failed to answer a summons.
His sister surrendered at the 122nd Precinct station house at 1 p.m. yesterday, and was given a desk-appearance ticket, according to a police spokesman.