Hit-and-run victim says wedding will go on

Jamesburg man accused
of driving car that struck Monroe woman

By jamie dougher
Staff Writer

Jamesburg man accused
of driving car that struck Monroe woman
By jamie dougher
Staff Writer

The victim of a harrowing hit-and-run accident just two weeks before her wedding is going to be able to walk down the aisle after all.

Lisa Lasardo, 24, was struck by a car June 10 while she was getting the mail in front of her Rhode Hall Road, Monroe residence at approximately 2:54 p.m.

Police said the four-door sedan, allegedly driven by William Czok, 47, of Jamesburg, kept on going but Czok was arrested later that day outside his borough residence.

Lasardo said she remembers being hit by the side-view mirror and hitting the back end of the car before rolling over the trunk and into the middle of the street. She said she then stood up but immediately fell back down. Scared that she might be hit again by another vehicle on Rhode Hall Road, which has a speed limit of 45 mph, she crawled her way to safety from the street to the grass.

"All I thought was, ‘Please, don’t let there be a car coming down the road,’" she said.

Two passers-by found Lasardo and called 911.

She was treated for a severe laceration to her right buttock at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, and she said she has undergone four surgeries for the injury.

She was expected to be released tomorrow at the latest.

"The pain has gotten a little better," she said.

Lasardo took her first steps since the accident Tuesday.

"It’s good to have my feet on the ground and be able to walk," she said.

The doctors told her she will have to mostly lay on her side for a couple of weeks to start the healing process.

Czok was arrested after Jamesburg police responded to his Sherman Street home for a report of a domestic dispute at 7:30 p.m.

Upon arriving there, officers found Czok sitting in his car outside his residence. They examined the car and reportedly found passenger-side damage and were able to identify the vehicle as the one that struck Lasardo.

Police said the officers matched his description and that of his car with the descriptions of the car and driver involved in the hit-and-run accident earlier that day.

The car had been described to police as an older, brown four-door sedan with a white male driver.

Sgt. Kenneth Gross of the Monroe Police Department said blood was found along the passenger side of the car, the side mirror was completely broken off and there was a slight dent in the vehicle.

Jamesburg police reported that Czok was intoxicated at the time of his arrest, and Gross said police suspect that he was also drunk at the time of the accident.

Czok was charged with aggravated assault with a motor vehicle, leaving the scene of an accident, failure to report and reckless driving. He was also charged by both Jamesburg and Monroe with driving while intoxicated.

Gross said the punishment for a conviction of aggravated assault with a motor vehicle is 7 to 10 years in prison, and leaving the scene of an accident can carry a sentence of 3 to 5 years. Czok was being held at the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center, North Brunswick, on $100,000 bail.

Because there were no skid marks at the scene, Gross said they cannot perform tests to determine whether the driver was speeding when the accident occurred.

Lasardo said she wanted to thank the police for their help.

"The Monroe and Jamesburg police departments did an excellent job," she said.

Lasardo and her fiancé, Ronnie Johannsen, who are getting married June 27, have had to postpone their honeymoon to Aruba until October because the doctor has forbidden her to travel out of the country until she is completely healed.

She said plans for the wedding were near complete when the accident occurred, but Johannsen helped finalize the last few details to ensure a wedding free of mishaps at St. Bartholomew’s Church, East Brunswick.

"I’m ready to go home and get on with my wedding," she said. "I’m very happy this is all coming to a close."