BETHLEHEM, Pa. – A man who seriously injured a woman in Bethlehem after he hit her with his vehicle while he was intoxicated has learned his sentence.<\/p>\n
Leroy Mendez, of Bethlehem, was sentenced to eight years and eight months to 19 years in state prison, according to a\u00a0news release from the Northampton County District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
He was found guilty in April of Aggravated Assault, Aggravated Assault by Vehicle While DUI, Accidents Involving Death or Personal Injury, Insurance Fraud, DUI, and DUI-related offenses following a non-jury trial, according to a news release from the Northampton County District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
On July 19, 2025, at approximately 1:32 a.m., Bethlehem City Police, Bethlehem City Fire Department, and Bethlehem City EMS responded to the area of East 4th Street in Bethlehem for a report of a pedestrian hit by a vehicle, the DA\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
Authorities said the vehicle then fled the scene.<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old woman that was hit was was thrown into the air by the impact and landed on the street, where first responders administered immediate treatment for life-threatening injuries, according to the DA\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
The DA\u2019s office said the woman was taken to the nearest hospital for further treatment. She had numerous serious injuries and will require extensive, lifelong medical care, according to the news release.<\/p>\n
During the investigation, police obtained city surveillance footage from the surrounding area, which captured the vehicle hitting the victim and colliding with a parked vehicle, and fleeing the scene, the DA\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
The DA\u2019s office said the vehicle was determined to be registered to Mendez.<\/p>\n
Later that morning, officers found the vehicle at Mendez\u2019s residence and saw that it had visible damage, according to the news release.<\/p>\n
According to the DA\u2019s office, officers made contact with Mendez at his home and learned that he had filed an insurance claim earlier that morning, stating another vehicle had sideswiped his car.<\/p>\n
While speaking to Mendez, officers saw signs of impairment and administered field sobriety tests, the DA\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
The DA\u2019s office said Mendez was then transported for a blood draw, which revealed a blood alcohol concentration of 0.126%, but was determined to be between 0.17% to 0.27% at the time of the incident.<\/p>\n
Further surveillance footage obtained by police showed Mendez committing numerous traffic violations while driving aimlessly and in a reckless manner in the period leading up to the incident, according to the news release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. – A man who seriously injured a woman in Bethlehem after he hit her with his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[4862,153,155,154,18837,12056,4758],"class_list":["post-244980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-aggravated-assault","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-dui","tag-hit-and-run","tag-verdict"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}