Witness Tells of Being Raped in 1986 by Bus Driver Charged in Assault

A woman testifying Thursday at the trial of an MTA bus driver accused of sexually assaulting a female passenger said the same man knocked her unconscious and raped her 15 years ago as she rode a bus alone with him.

The testimony of the 45-year-old former Baldwin Park resident came in the second day of Leonard Henry Howell’s trial. The bus driver is accused of two felony counts of sexual assault on a 26-year-old San Dimas woman last August in his empty bus in an industrial area of Pomona. Prosecutors say Howell assaulted her after she fell asleep after taking medication for a cold.

Howell, 56, and the transit agency’s predecessor were found liable after a civil trial in 1991 for the assault on the Baldwin Park woman and a jury awarded her $650,000.

An attorney for the MTA took copious notes during testimony Thursday and occasionally handed notes to Howell’s attorney. The San Dimas woman has already sued the agency, alleging it knew Howell was a danger to female passengers. MTA officials have declined to comment on why Howell was not fired previously.

Howell was never criminally charged in the 1986 incident with the Baldwin Park woman. He continued to drive a bus until his arrest last August, when he was suspended.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Christine S. Weiss told jurors in opening statements Wednesday that Howell deserves to be convicted in criminal court this time and asked them to put him “out of service.”

During her questioning of the Baldwin Park woman Thursday, Weiss tried to illustrate the similarities between the two incidents. The woman testified that on New Year’s Eve 1986 she was riding to work in Pomona on the bus alone with Howell when he stopped the bus, propositioned her and pulled down his pants’ zipper. “I said, ‘No,’ ” she testified. “He hit me and I lost consciousness.”

She awoke to find herself on the back seat of the bus, partially undressed and with a burning sensation in her vagina, she testified. Howell warned her not to go to police, she said.

Howell’s attorney, Gary W. Meastas, chose not to cross-examine the woman. Meastas told jurors in opening statements that, in the current case, Howell had consensual sex with the San Dimas woman in his van back in El Monte before the pair boarded his bus. Meastas plans to call two witnesses who have indicated they saw a woman with Howell in his van earlier that day last August. Meastas scoffed at the contention that an over-the-counter cold medication could render someone unconscious.

Howell’s accuser, however, testified that she was unconscious during the assault. She said she had left work early that day because she was sick. Howell offered her a ride about 2:15 p.m. at the El Monte bus station to Los Angeles on his air-conditioned bus on a scorching day. He bought her food and flirted with her, she said. She was not interested, she testified, because she is a lesbian.

He then headed back along his route to Pomona, picking up passengers, and stopped to get her some Contac in a La Puente liquor store. The woman told Pomona detectives she became drowsy after taking the drug and fell asleep. She said she awoke to find herself half undressed with him kissing her bare chest on an empty bus. Prosecutors say Howell’s DNA was found in saliva on the woman’s chest.