Mt. Pleasant woman claims self defense in 2022 Scottdale hit and run

A prosecutor told a jury Monday there is no reasonable way to explain why a Mt. Pleasant woman ran over another woman two years ago outside of a Scottdale apartment building.

Nicole Louise Moore, 28, is accused of aggravated assault, hit and run, and other offenses in connection with an incident that police said left a woman hospitalized after Moore attacked her with a baseball bat and ran over her with the car. They say the incident began as a verbal confrontation and ended with the woman being dragged under the vehicle.

“It was not reasonable at all that the defendant let her anger take over,” said Assistant District Attorney Steven Reddy during opening statements in the trial before Common Pleas Court Judge Scott Mears.

Prosecutors claim the April 11, 2022, incident involved a dispute that erupted over allegations Moore allegedly left a 3-year-old child alone in a vehicle as she visited a friend at a Pittsburgh Street apartment building. When she returned to the car, Moore confronted the woman, who was recording video of the child, police said.

Investigators say that as a verbal altercation ensued, Moore removed a wood baseball bat from her vehicle, swung it repeatedly and hit the other woman three times. The woman then retrieved a brick from the ground and threw it at Moore’s vehicle.

Reddy suggested Moore had an opportunity to drive in reverse and away from the scene. He said evidence will show that Moore intentionally drove forward and over a railroad tie, hitting the woman with the vehicle and dragging her several feet through a grassy area. The woman was hospitalized for several days with a fractured pelvis and other broken bones, Reddy said.

Defense attorney Ken Noga said Moore acted in self defense and never attempted to injure the woman with her car and immediately went to police to report the incident.

“She panicked and she didn’t know what else to do. She just wanted to get out of there,” Noga told jurors. “She was a flustered woman in a state of panic and did what she had to do to get herself and her child to safety,” Noga said.

Testimony in the trial will continue on Tuesday.