Woman imprisoned in jogger hit-run seeks early work release after just 3 months

Joyce Howard, left, and hit-and-run victim Mat Lefebvre (Strafford County Court online screen capture)

DOVER - The Rochester woman who was sentenced to one and a half to three years in state prison for running over a jogger in October 2021 was in court on Friday seeking work release after a little over three months of incarceration.
The hearing was held remotely with Joyce Howard, 70, of Mcduffee Street, viewing the proceedings from Shea Farm, a transitional housing unit located in Manchester.
Howard's attorney, Stuart Dedopoulos of Durham, urged Judge Daniel E. Will to grant the work release, saying prison personnel had found Howard a very "low risk" inmate and the court should not be meddling in decisions made by corrections officials.
Deputy County Attorney Emily Garod, the lead prosecutor in the case, disagreed, arguing that state statute allows the state to push back on prison directives if they conflict with the court's sentencing intent.
During sentencing Judge Will said Howard deserved jail time as punishment for her actions, adding that deterrence and rehabilitation were not factors.
Garod echoed those arguments on Friday, saying Howard is not in need of rehabilitation or re-entry into the workforce.
"She's only been in prison for three months," Garod said. "She has said she's not going back to work, and now she says she's going for her license. She had said she was not going to reapply for her license."
Garod also argued that Howard had only spent a sliver of her year and a half minimum sentence behind bars.
In fact, right now she is staying at the Shea Farm, a transitional housing unit that can hold about 40 female inmates. It wasn't made clear during the hearing how much, if any, time had been spent in a cell.
Dedopoulos claimed the court was attempting to "usurp" prison authority.
"I understand you want her incarcerated, but experts in the prison system have said she is low risk," he said. "It is not their responsibility to put her back behind bars."
The victim, Mat Lefebvre of Rochester, agreed with Garod that the sentence should be adhered to as delivered.
During sentencing Will said Howard's actions on Oct. 11, 2021 wrought "terrible consequences" on Lefebvre and her court testimony "lacked credibility."
The jury took less than two hours to find her guilty of second degree assault and leaving the scene of an accident.
Howard was found guilty of striking - then running over - Lefebvre as he jogged across McDuffee Street at the corner of North Main Street a little before 6 a.m.
After Howard's vehicle struck him and knocked him down, she paused before running over him, leaving him with nine broken ribs, a broken sternum and clavicle, a punctured lung, nerve damage to his left side and a severe laceration that went from ear to ear on top of his head that took 25 staples to stop the bleeding.
Lefebvre said during sentencing that due to his injuries, especially a rib that didn't heal correctly, he can play few recreational activities because if he falls he could be "permanently paralyzed or worse."
During the trial Howard testified that after her 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe came to a stop at the corner of McDuffee and North Main, she looked left and fell asleep. She said when she woke up a few seconds later she was on nearby Twombly Street and realized that she was heading to get some blood drawn at a lab. She said she didn't remember hitting anyone.
Lefebvre, an avid jogger who had a strobe light on his head as he was jogging south of the North Main Street McDonald's, said he saw the Hyundai come to a stop sign and remain stopped. He then arced out to the right and began to cross, when the vehicle suddenly accelerated as he was almost three quarters of the way across the front of the car.
During the trial he testified that when the car hit him it knocked him to the ground.
"I hit the ground and landed on my right shoulder and my temple," he said under questioning from Garod. "I thought to myself, 'Holy crap, I just got hit by a car.' It could've been much worse. I knew my shoulder was injured. I had been pushed into North Main Street. But now I'm partially in the path of cars. Then I hear the (SUV accelerate). I laid as flat as possible and yelled, 'You gotta be kidding me.'"
Lefebvre said as the car lurched forward over his body he felt such excruciating pain that it conjured images of his wife and three young boys as he feared the worse.
"It was like a wave, I could feel my bones popping and crunching," he said, his voice breaking. "I thought about my wife and kids ... I was under the car and knew the back wheel would be coming at some point. And it did. It went just above my butt and my head was being dragged across the pavement. I thought my head was going to rip off."
During Friday's hearing Will said he wanted to review his comments during the sentencing prior to rendering a judgment.