Ex-School Bus Driver Pleads No Contest to Sex Charge

A former Laidlaw Transit school bus driver pleaded no contest to a charge that he had sex with a 15-year-old Burbank girl he drove to classes for hearing-impaired junior high school students, authorities said Friday.

Manny G. Acosta, 33, of North Hollywood entered the plea Thursday in Burbank Municipal Court in exchange for a promise from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office that it would not seek a sentence of more than 16 months in prison, prosecutors said.

A spokesman for the Burbank Unified School District said Acosta’s arrest--the fourth of a Laidlaw driver in Southern California this year--may cost the company a $30,000-a-month contract with the district.

The plea was entered in a closed hearing after Judge Marion E. Gubler granted a defense request to exclude the public and reporters from the courtroom to spare Acosta embarrassment, Deputy Dist. Atty. David R. Disco said.

Disco said his office had objected to the closed hearing in a prior meeting in the judge’s chambers.

Acosta, who a Laidlaw spokesman said will be fired after the company is officially notified of his plea, is scheduled to be sentenced June 8. He has no prior criminal record, authorities said.

“Based on the facts of this case it was our view that the 16-month maximum sentence was appropriate,” Disco said.

The bus driver was arrested May 2 after a two-day investigation that began when one of the 15-year-old girl’s friends told a school counselor of her involvement with Acosta.

Burbank police said Acosta, a Laidlaw employee for two years, drove a bus route that took the girl from Burbank to Toll Junior High School in Glendale, where she attended special classes for the hearing-impaired. Police said the girl told investigators that she fell in love with Acosta after she began taking his bus in February and that the two began a relationship. Police said Acosta and the girl engaged in consensual sex in his van, not in the bus or on school property.

Acosta was the fourth Laidlaw driver arrested this year in Southern California, where the company employs about 2,500 drivers.

Two drivers were arrested for driving buses while allegedly drunk and a third was arrested for allegedly carrying a gun on a bus. In 1989, two school districts in the Santa Clarita Valley refused to renew contracts with Laidlaw, citing poor service and other problems, including an incident in which a driver was fired for having sex with a high school freshman girl.

Citing those problems and Acosta’s arrest, Burbank school district officials announced earlier this month that they would consider discontinuing use of Laidlaw, a subsidiary of a Canadian company that operates bus routes throughout California and 15 other states.

After meeting with Laidlaw managers this month, Burbank school officials decided to open the district’s busing contract to new bids this summer, district spokesman Timothy Crowner said.

“We are going to reassess the whole situation and look at other companies,” Crowner said Friday.

Laidlaw’s current contract expires at the end of the summer session. The company is used to transport handicapped students to out-of-district school programs, and occasionally for field trips and athletic events.

Crowner said that although Laidlaw can bid on the district’s busing contract, officials are not bound to accept the lowest bid.

“Beyond looking at the low bid, we will have to look at other issues such as security and service when we decide” which company will receive the busing contract, Crowner said.