Newtown Woman Sentenced in Bristol Assault by Vehicle Case

Updated: Saturday May 30

The Newtown Township woman who tried to run over a Bristol Borough woman last year was sentenced by a Bucks County Judge Wednesday subsequent to a negotiated plea deal prosecutors made with the suspect shortly after a federal fugitive task force captured her in January.

Bucks County Common Pleas Court Judge Stephen A. Corr sentenced Laurie Gardner, who turns 33 next month, to 11 1/2 months and up to 23 months in county jail as she entered guilty pleas to two counts of aggravated assault with a vehicle and related offenses.

Gardner, as part of the negotiated plea her court appointed attorney William Penglase, Esquire worked out before a February court hearing, will have to attend anger management classes, have no contact with the victim and pay court costs of about a little more than $2100.00 with the payment plan starting at the beginning of 2027.

A no contact order with the victim is also in place.

Judge Corr said, provided Gardner doesn’t receive any misconducts she can can be released on presumptive parole in late December since she’s been given time served credit dating back to when the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Force took her into custody on January 9. 

According to Bristol Borough Police, Gardner and the victim got into a verbal altercation at Phinny Magee’s Bar in Bristol Borough on April 26 and she assaulted the victim with her vehicle.

Police said Gardner struck a metal-framed blue bench outside the bar leaving it a mangled mess and the victim injured. Shortly thereafter, she fled the area, police said, first to a friend’s place at Stonebridge Run Apartments on Bath Rd in Bristol Township.

Police spoke with Gardner’s friend living in the apartment complex who denied Gardner was their.

Days later Bristol Borough Police filed an arrest warrant for Gardner which was posted on social media.  She fled the area,  becoming an identified fugitive before she was taken into custody at a boyfriend’s house in Falls Township this past winter by U.S. Marshals.

Credit: U.S. Marshals Service