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YOUNGSTOWN -- A man is being treated for serious injuries after being struck by an unlicensed driver.
A Youngstown police report states that police were called to the 3300 block of Mahoning Avenue at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, where they found the man lying on the ground near an electric bicycle.
The report states the man told police he could not feel or move his legs.
The driver of the car, identified as John Brzozowski, 45, of Garfield Heights, told police he was headed west on Mahoning Avenue, and was trying to turn left into the plaza near Jamboree Dental when he struck the man on the bike.
The driver said he could not see the man because he was dressed all in black and the bike also was black. He said he didn't know the man was there until his car made contact.
The report states the biker said he was riding his bike on the south side of the sidewalk heading east on Mahoning and was approaching the entrance of the plaza when he said he was hit.
Police ran the driver's name through LEADS and found that he did not have a driver's license for failure to reinstate through the Ohio BMV.
The driver was arrested on a charge of operating a motor vehicle without a valid license, a first-degree misdemeanor, and taken to the Mahoning County Sheriff's Office.
The biker was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.
Brzozowski has no prior criminal record in Mahoning County, but his name - with matching birthdate - turns up a record with multiple arrests and convictions in Cuyahoga County, including a guilty plea to a May 2024 drug possession charge; and guilty pleas to forgery, identity fraud, and aggravated theft, stemming from an October 2023 arrest, at which time he was still on probation from a prior offense.
Other guilty pleas and charges include grand theft, escape, procuring prostitution, gross sexual imposition [pleaded guilty], rape and kidnapping [both dismissed], domestic violence [dismissed], and multiple inistances of failing to register a change of address with authorities.
He appeared Monday before Youngstown Municipal Court Judge Carla Baldwin, and is due for a pretrial hearing on Dec. 16. He was released from jail on his own recognizance.