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Jersey City's Amy DeGise, who admitted hit-and-run, says she didn't realize she'd hit someone
By
Nancy Solomon
Published Feb 17, 2023
Modified Feb 18, 2023
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NJ PBS
By
Nancy Solomon
Published Feb 17, 2023
Modified Feb 18, 2023
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The Jersey City councilmember who pleaded guilty to a hit-and-run with a bicyclist says she never hit the brakes and kept driving because she didn’t know she’d hit someone.
The victim, Andrew Black, was working for UberEats at the time and suffered an ankle injury.
“I hit what felt like a bad bump,” Amy DeGise told NJ PBS reporter David Cruz on his online interview show, Chatbox. “Unfortunately, instead of pulling over and assessing the full situation, my mind had kind of defaulted to what would've been the most reasonable thing that just happened. 'You hit a pothole, you hit a bad pothole' — and I continued on and went to work.”
The Chatbox interview and another online program that aired Monday are the only times DeGise has spoken about the hit-and-run accident. She declined an interview request from Gothamist this week, via a spokesman.
In August, DeGise hit a bicyclist who ran a red light at the intersection of Martin Luther King Drive and Forrest Street in Jersey City. She didn’t report the crash until six hours later.
Surveillance video that showed the bicyclist tumbling through the air went viral. Residents called for her resignation during five hours of public comments at an August city council meeting. More than 7,500 people called for her resignation in an online petition as well.
DeGise pleaded guilty last month to one charge related to the hit-and-run. She lost her license for one year and was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine. A second charge of not reporting an accident was dropped as part of a plea agreement.
The license suspension is the mandatory minimum for a hit-and-run that results in bodily injury.
She said on Chatbox that she was not contacted by Jersey City police before she went to the police station. She said she went after noticing damage to her front bumper.
**“**At that time, I believe they had seen the video or the CCTV, and had ran [my plates], I guess, and would've known it was me. [They] prepared the tickets and we left.” she said.
DeGise was elected to the city council in 2021 on the slate of Mayor Steven Fulop, and her father is the Hudson County executive, a position that wields enormous power. She works at a county high school and was elected to run the party’s county committee in 2018 before stepping down last year amid a power-sharing deal among political factions.
Only two members of the City Council have called on her to resign. Mayor Steven Fulop and Gov. Phil Murphy have both refused to do so, each saying last year the legal process should play out. But neither has called for her resignation since DeGise pleaded guilty.
In a statement after pleading guilty, DeGise described the hit-and-run as “a mistake that I will regret for the rest of my life.”
DeGise said on Chatbox she will now focus on street safety and improving the bike lanes in Jersey City.
And now she’s learning to get around without a car. She said she’s using “my bike, my feet, my fiance, Uber, mass transit, the kindness of people's hearts going in my direction.”
“Luckily, I do live close to the light rail and bus stops, which helps,” DeGise said. And, yeah, luckily the weather has not been hard either.”
Tagged
public safety
new jersey
Politics
Nancy Solomon
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