Allegation of Attack Is 2nd Against Bus Driver

An MTA bus driver slated to go on trial Monday for allegedly sexually assaulting a female passenger was found liable for a similar attack 15 years ago, leading a jury to award $650,000 damages against the transit agency’s predecessor, court papers show.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is now facing a civil lawsuit by the victim in the latest incident, who says the agency should have known that Leonard Henry Howell was a “grave and serious risk” to the public. “The MTA knew that Leonard Howell had a . . . history of raping and assaulting his women bus passengers,” the suit filed recently says.

After reviewing Howell’s past, Deputy Dist. Atty. Christine S. Weiss, who is handling the criminal case, said she wondered: “What does it take to get fired by the MTA?”

A jury awarded a Baldwin Park woman the $650,000 in 1991. MTA officials cannot comment on why Howell was retained after the verdict because it is forbidden by law from discussing personnel matters, said Ed Scannell, a spokesman. Under MTA guidelines, any of 10 major infractions may be grounds for dismissal, from insubordination to sexual harassment.

Scannell said Howell has been suspended without pay pending the resolution of the criminal charges. Howell, who pleaded not guilty, is free on $50,000 bail and faces up to eight years in prison if convicted.

The 56-year-old Pomona resident is charged with two felony counts of sexual penetration with a foreign object against the 26-year-old San Dimas woman last Aug. 14. He allegedly met the passenger, who was feeling sick, at the El Monte bus station and persuaded her to ride his bus to downtown Los Angeles to get something to eat at a Burger King.

He then headed back along his route to the East San Gabriel Valley, picking up passengers and stopping to get the woman some cold medication in a La Puente liquor store.

She told Pomona police detectives that, after taking the over-the-counter medication, she became drowsy and fell asleep about 4 p.m. as he drove. He allegedly waited for the bus to empty and then stopped. She told authorities she awoke to find herself undressed and Howell on top of her.

Howell let her go about 6 p.m. in Pomona. “I didn’t have no . . . sex with this woman,” Howell, an 18-year driver, insisted in an interview with Pomona Det. John Pomroy.

He denied ever going to Los Angeles with the woman, but acknowledged buying Contac and bottled water at a La Puente liquor store where he stopped the bus. His attorney has listed two witnesses to suggest that any sexual contact was consensual.

Fifteen years ago, Howell was accused of raping a female bus passenger by rendering her unconscious in unincorporated West Covina. That incident, on New Year’s Eve, 1986, was accidentally never forwarded to prosecutors, Weiss said.

According to court papers, the woman in 1986 was alone with Howell on the bus near Grand and Cameron avenues about 10:30 a.m. when the driver allegedly stopped and made sexual advances. As she tried to get off the bus, he allegedly knocked her unconscious.

She awoke to find herself nude below the waist with signs of a sexual assault, according to court papers and a police report. A civil jury awarded her the $650,000 in damages from the Southern California Transit Authority, which was the predecessor to the MTA, and found Howell liable, according to court papers.

“I am shocked and outraged to learn they didn’t fire him,” said Weldon Diggs, an attorney who tried the case for the alleged victim. “Unfortunately, with a civil verdict the employer had the choice to keep their employee.”

Diggs said transit attorneys throughout the trial maintained Howell’s innocence. “When Mr. Howell walked into that courtroom, you could see the terror on my client’s face,” Diggs said. “You knew she was raped by this man.

“How can sexually assaulting a passenger not be a major infraction worthy of dismissal?” he asked.

The 1986 allegations were not the only blemishes on his job record. Transit agency records show that, as early as 1981, a passenger boarding his bus complained to transit police. “Saw operator on the floor of the bus with a girl,” states a June 29, 1981, transit report.

Prosecutors said they sought agency records on Howell and found an extensive personnel file documenting complaints or allegations of misconduct. However, prosecutors were unable to find records showing that transit officials disciplined Howell or attempted to correct the alleged problems.

The MTA did try to terminate Howell in 1997 for “gross misconduct” after supervisors alleged that he gave false information to the California Highway Patrol. They said he falsely reported to the CHP that a bus had broken down to cover up being late.

After he was accused of making that report, sheriff’s deputies were called to remove him from an MTA facility after he allegedly became enraged at supervisors, according to MTA records. Howell was placed on administrative leave and, after the bus drivers union became involved, he won an appeal to keep his job, MTA records show.

“Based on prior experience,” said Weiss, “I’ll convict him and the MTA might still hold his job for him.”