HER RUN IS DONE
Charged with hitting B’klyn teen & fleeing
A suspected hit-and-run driver’s two weeks on the lam ended abruptly Wednesday — in the back of a police car.
Julia Litmanovich, 49, was marched from her Staten Island home in handcuffs Wednesday afternoon just hours after cops identified her as the woman behind the wheel of a black Dodge Challenger that sent 14-year-old Xin Yi Wang flying through a Brooklyn intersection.
Just a few hours later, Litmanovich was moved again from Brooklyn’s 66th Precinct in Borough Park — her hands cuffed behind her back, her ankles shackled, her face pale and an oxygen cannula in her nose — to Maimonides Medical Center. The reason for the hospital visit wasn’t immediately disclosed.
The NYPD moved quickly to slam the brakes on Litmanovich’s free ride since the terrifying March 27 crash where she was caught on security video running a red light. The teen, who was in the crosswalk, miraculously escaped with only minor injuries. The driver sped away before police arrived.
Wang told the Daily News she is now scared to cross streets, has difficulty concentrating in school and is still suffering with severe bruising to her hip.
“At first I thought, ‘oh my God, did I do something wrong? Did I cross at the wrong time?’ I was so shocked. But then I realized she’s the one who did something wrong,” Wang told The News.
Litmanovich’s rap sheet includes 30 prior arrests, including one for bolting the scene of a 2007 crash, police said.
Cops brought the wanted woman out of her home shortly before 4 p.m., with her hands cuffed behind her back as an officer steered her down the driveway to the back seat of a waiting police car. She ignored questions about the incident where she allegedly struck the young pedestrian with enough force to bounce the teen into oncoming traffic at an intersection.
Outside the 66th Precinct at 6:45 p.m., as Litmanovich was being placed in an ambulance, she barked at a photographer to “Stop taking pictures of me.”
Litmanovich wore a white T-shirt, flowered pajama pants and a dark coat draped over her shoulders to hide the cuffs when she was hauled out of her home.
“This is kind of a little shock,” said next-door neighbor Vincent Capri, 56, after watching the suspect leave with police. “At times she got a little lod, but other than that she seemed to be OK.”
Cops said the previous hitand-run in which she was involved occurred 11 years ago on Staten Island, with Litmanovich fleeing before cops arrived after she rear-ended another vehicle on Hylan Blvd.
In last month’s hit-and-run, the teen was sent flying after she was hit by a car on 47th St. and Ninth Ave. in Borough Park. She managed to dodge traffic and even stood right up, though she was later treated for bruises to her legs and upper body.
The driver was seen in video released by cops climbing out of her car and hugging the girl in apparent relief. Litmanovich even asked the fortunate teen if she wanted a ride home — cops originally believed the teen asked for the ride — but Wang declined.
“I thought to myself, if she was able to hurt me this much and do something that dangerous what else would she do? So I said no and got out of there. It’s why I got up so fast. I was scared. It was an extremely bad experience.”