Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray announced today that an Essex County jury convicted Charlene Cook, 24, of Emmaus, Pa., of aggravated assault for hitting her boyfriend with a car during an argument.
On Nov. 20, 2011, at approximately 4 a.m. Cook, her boyfriend and his sister has just left a nightclub in West Orange when they got into an argument in the car, according to Essex County Prosecutor Michael Morris, who tried the case before the Honorable Peter Ryan, Judge of the Superior Court.
Cook was driving the car, the boyfriend was a passenger and his sister was in the backseat. Cook pulled over near an office building in the 500 block of Pompton Avenue in Cedar Grove and scratched the victim in the face.
He got out of the car to get away from her and she drove the car 20 feet up a hill and hit the victim, with her 2007 Hyundai, leaving him with a compound fracture of his right leg. Both the tibia and fibula, the two long bones in the lower leg were broken, serious enough to break through the skin. The victim was rushed to St. Joseph Hospital in Paterson, where he underwent emergency surgery.
Yesterday an Essex County jury convicted Cook of aggravated assault.
“This defendant was in the throes of a murderous rage and she gave into it. We thought it was important to press this case,’’ said Morris.
Sentencing is scheduled for March 14. Cook faces 3 to 5 years.
