photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center is pictured on Sept. 4, 2024.

A woman accused in a March hit-and-run that killed a dog and critically injured its owner admitted to police that she was responsible for the accident after initially telling an elaborate lie about it, according to a recently released affidavit in the case.

The arrest affidavit, the allegations of which have not been proved in court, details what police relied on to support the arrest of Lasean Dixon, of Lawrence, who made her first appearance in court earlier this month.

As the Journal-World reported, a 74-year-old woman and her dog were crossing the street at the intersection of East 23rd Street and Barker Avenue just before 8 a.m. on March 18 and were struck by a car that left the scene. The dog died, and the critically injured woman was taken to a trauma center with a broken leg and other injuries.

Five months after the incident a summons was issued for Dixon to answer for the felony charge of leaving the scene of an injury accident.

According to the affidavit, police arrived at the scene of the accident, where multiple people were attempting to render first aid to the woman in the crosswalk where Barker Avenue intersects with East 23rd Street. Police saw a dead dog by a nearby curb, its head facing the intersection.

Two witnesses told police that the woman and her dog were crossing 23rd Street in accordance with the pedestrian control light when a car going eastbound on 23rd Street ran the red light and struck them in the crosswalk.

Numerous people called police dispatch saying they had information about the incident, and one of them turned out to be Dixon herself, who gave a fake name, “Lashawn Roby,” according to the affidavit.

Dixon, as Roby, reportedly told police that she believed she was behind the driver who kept going, in possibly a black or gray SUV. She said she did not notice that the vehicle hit anything and did not get a good look at the driver because the sun had been in her face. She said she pulled over because she saw a dog, but she said she didn’t know what had happened.

Meanwhile, traffic cameras in the area indicated that the car that struck the woman and her dog was a dark gray Dodge Avenger with a temporary license plate. Police received a tip that it had been parked at the scene immediately after the crash, and later they received a tip that the driver was Dixon.

Police paid a visit to Dixon’s residence, where she told them that as she was driving she saw people behind her stopping, so she stopped too and saw the dog. She told police that she got out of her vehicle but a Chinese man told her “I got it,” so she called the police and left.

When asked if she was the driver who hit the woman, she told police no. When officers asked where her car was, she first said her boyfriend had it in Topeka. Officers asked if the car was actually in her garage, and she said no, but when they asked to look, the vehicle was there.

Dixon had told them the vehicle was not damaged, but police wrote in the affidavit that they had observed a cracked and scuffed front bumper that had a blood stain and dog hair on it, and the passenger side mirror was also damaged, consistent with having struck something.

Officers asked Dixon to be honest, and she then told them that the car in front of her was speeding, that she stopped when other cars stopped, and this time she said she saw a person on the ground in addition to a dog. Police asked Dixon why she didn’t tell them she hit a person, and, according to the affidavit, Dixon said, “I didn’t hit her. I thought I hit nothing. I didn’t know if I hit anything.”

Dixon then stated that she called police because she hit the dog. Officers noted to her that she had denied hitting anything and that she had initially said she left the scene because she did not want to be late for work, thinking “it was just a dog.”

Dixon told police that as she was driving away she saw a person on the ground, but earlier she hadn’t seen the person because a crowd of people had obstructed her view. However, officers viewed traffic camera footage and observed Dixon standing in the crosswalk near the injured pedestrian less than two minutes after the crash. The footage did not show a crowd, but just two other people and Dixon, who appeared to be on her phone.

Dixon eventually apologized for lying, according to the affidavit. She then told police that she had “cellulitis” in her eye, which affected her vision. The “beaming” sunlight was the only thing she could see, she said, except for the green light, which she was positive she had, contradicting other witnesses who said they had stopped for a red.

As she was going through the green light, she said, she heard a bump and saw it was a dog, but said again that she did not see the woman. She told police she was petrified because she had killed a dog and had evidently hurt someone. She said she was also petrified of going to prison and losing her children, according to the affidavit.

The victim of the accident, when contacted by police in the hospital, said she had been especially careful while crossing because she had almost been hit at that intersection before. She said she was certain that the pedestrian walk sign was on and that cars had come to a stop. She believed she was a couple of steps into the intersection when a car zoomed through and hit her.

Judge Amy Hanley has appointed attorney Jessica Glendening to represent Dixon, whose next court appearance, a status conference, is scheduled for Oct. 9.