A Delaware woman charged in a hit-and-run that left a 92-year-old Ventnor pedestrian seriously injured was released from jail with conditions Thursday.
Leslie Myers, 51, was arrested in Pennsylvania on Jan. 7, and jailed on charges including assault by auto and leaving the scene of an accident causing serious bodily injury.
She was released from the Allegheny County Jail last Thursday, and then turned herself in at the Atlantic County Justice Facility under an agreement set up by her defense attorney, Lou Barbone.
Myers is shown on video surveillance speeding before striking the victim, who landed on the hood of her vehicle, according to the affidavit of probable cause previously reported by BreakingAC.
She allegedly did not brake or even slow down before or after the impact, which sent the victim onto her roof before he ended up severely injured in the roadway.
"The defendant obviously knew she hit somebody," Assistant Prosecutor Frank Vizzi told the judge during Myers' detention hearing Thursday. "You don't hit somebody and not feel it."
He said that Myers not only leaving the state to return to Delaware but then winding up arrested in a third state gives the prosecution "great concern" that she would be a flight risk.
But Barbone said Myers did not flee the state.
Instead, she returned to the Margate home where she and her husband were staying, and did not return to Delaware "until much later in the fall."
When police came with a search warrant, it was Myers was in Pittsburgh for Christmas visiting her mother, Barbone said.
"That was the first notice that the defendant's husband had," he said.
The Volvo was seized, but there was no indication of a potential arrest, Barbone said, indicating her husband would have driven her to the Atlantic County Justice Facility, as he did after she was released from jail in Pennsylvania, where she was arrested.
Barbone also pointed to her medical history as a factor in deciding whether she "knowingly" fled the scene.
Prior to the Nov. 20 crash, she was in treatment for "a number of psychiatric conditions," including one similar to dementia, where there are "forgotten blocks of her life," her defense attorney said.
"This is not an individual who simply callously and without any regard fled the scene of an accident," Barbone told the judge. "This is the kind of accident that was emergent, that was startling to a driver, and perhaps a no escape situation because of the location of the victim."
The charges claim that the victim was crossing Ventnor Avenue at the crosswalk on Newport Avenue, heading to his parked car. It says that he walked out of the crosswalk as he approached his driver's side door.
Video obtained by 6ABC from a nearby business shows the man may have been crossing against the light. He is out of the crosswalk lines when the white SUV strikes him.
Judge Ralph Paolone agreed that Myers is not a flight risk and pointed to the public safety assessment that gave her the lowest scores possible for danger and failure to appear. It recommended she be released on her own recognizance.
He noted that her likelihood of incarceration on the charge is low, and she is not subject to a lengthy sentence, further incentivizing her not to flee.
Paolone did impose stricter conditions, including weekly check-ins. Normally that would include in-person every other week, but the judge suggested those meetings be held via Zoom, as he does not want Myers driver.
He said that she should have her mental issues addressed before she is able to drive, and suggested she be tested by the Motor Vehicle Commission as well.
Paolone also ordered her passport surrendered, if she has one.
(This story originally ran Jan. 20, 2026. It has been updated to include the details of the detention hearing, and to include a photo of the defendant at that hearing.)
