State Knew of Bus Driver’s Criminal Past : Safety: Officials knew a school bus driver, charged with drunk driving, had an extensive record. But policies kept the agency from telling the DMV.

State officials knew more than a month ago that a school bus driver charged last week with driving drunk while trying to pick up a load of students in Encino had applied for his driver’s license using an alias and had an extensive criminal record.

But state Department of Justice policies kept that agency’s officials from passing the information on to the California Highway Patrol or the Department of Motor Vehicles, which had issued driver Harold Keith Lone a temporary school bus driver’s certificate, said Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar).

As a result, Lone, who had been convicted of drunk driving five times, was allowed to continue working as a bus driver for Laidlaw Transit, which is under contract to the Los Angeles Unified School District.

A motorist called police from his car phone last Tuesday to report that Lone’s bus, which carried no passengers at the time, was weaving across three lanes of the Hollywood Freeway at speeds up to 70 m.p.h. Police said Lone, who used the alias Harold Keith Holmes, was staggering, and his speech was slurred when he was arrested at Lanai Street Elementary School, where he had gone to pick up children.

Oddly, it was a criminal charge pending against Lone, 40, of Los Angeles, that kept his past undisclosed, Katz said.

Lone had used a forged birth certificate to obtain a driver’s license after his license was suspended in 1983, Katz said. His driver’s record under the false name was clean, police said.

He was hired by Laidlaw Transit in September, after completing a bus driver’s training course. He was fingerprinted in late August by the California Highway Patrol as part of his application to become a school bus driver. But the fingerprints were not submitted for about a month because Lone had not yet obtained a medical certificate.

Katz said the Highway Patrol submitted the fingerprints to the DMV on Nov. 13, and they were forwarded to the Justice Department the next day.

The Justice Department ran the prints through its computer in mid-December as part of a routine check and discovered Lone’s use of an alias and his long criminal record under his own name. That record included convictions for robbery, burglary, auto theft and, in 1987, assault with a deadly weapon, police said.

Katz said the check also found that Lone has an additional criminal charge pending against him in Los Angeles County. He said he did not know the nature of that charge.

But Katz said that under Justice Department policies, designed to protect the rights of those accused of crimes, the agency will not disclose a person’s criminal record if a charge is pending against him. The same policies kept the Justice Department from reporting Lone’s use of an alias to the DMV.

Had the DMV been told of an alias, officials there would have linked Lone to the drunk driving convictions and the 1983 suspension of his driver’s license, Katz said.

Katz, who talked with officials from all three agencies Monday, said he has recommended several policy changes to prevent a reoccurrence of the situation.

He said that beginning next month, the California Highway Patrol will fingerprint prospective bus drivers as soon as they begin the four- to six-week training course for the certificate required for the job. Justice Department officials told Katz that they would begin processing those fingerprints in 17 days so an applicant’s background will have been checked by the time the training course is completed. Those two policy changes would enable the DMV to stop issuing temporary bus driving certificates, Katz said.

“The whole notion of the fingerprint checks is to keep bad guys away from kids, so why should someone be out there with a license for up to six months while we’re trying to determine whether they pose a threat?” Katz said.

Two drunk driving charges were filed against Lone last week. James A. Baker, Van Nuys assistant head district attorney, said his office is considering bringing additional charges against Lone for filing a false application for a driver’s license.

A spokeswoman for Los Angeles County Jail said Lone’s $5,000 bond was posted Monday and he was to be released.