MTA Will Pay Woman Raped by Bus Driver

A bus passenger who was raped by the driver will receive $1.95 million from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a settlement motivated partly by the fact that the driver had lost a civil verdict in a similar attack 16 years ago, yet remained on the job.

Leonard Henry Howell, 57, was found guilty in criminal court last year of sexually assaulting a San Dimas woman on Aug. 14, 2001. The woman testified that she fell asleep on the bus after Howell gave her an over-the-counter medication. She woke up at an El Monte bus depot, half dressed and with Howell kissing her chest. DNA evidence linked Howell to the crime.

The MTA’s settlement with her avoids a civil trial.

“I’m just happy this is finally all over,” the 27-year-old woman said. Since the attack, she said, she has had trouble keeping jobs and socializing. “This shows the MTA needs to be more careful in who they hire. As for me, I’m just trying to cope and get back on track.”

Howell, now serving an eight-year sentence, was found to have committed a similar crime in 1986, when he worked for the transit agency’s predecessor, the Southern California Rapid Transit District. The 1991 civil verdict in that case cost the agency $650,000, according to the MTA’s legal chief, Steve Carnevale. The district attorney’s office, citing insufficient evidence, did not file criminal charges in that case.

But for reasons the MTA says it has never been able to figure out, Carnevale said, Howell was not fired after the civil verdict.

“The fact he remained on the job meant this would not have been an easy case to try,” Carnevale said. “It would not have been fun.”

The former transit agency did not keep adequate records of the case, Carnevale said. It was not discovered by MTA officials when the agencies merged.

“We just don’t have any answers,” he said. “But this woman was seriously harmed. And she is entitled to significant damages. That is what motivated the board.”

Records show that Howell had run-ins at the transit agency. He was fired after fighting with a boss in 1997, only to be rehired, according to court documents.

“The [Rapid Transit District] clearly dropped the ball in the first place,” said the woman’s lawyer, David Ring. “And then the MTA never figured it out, even though this guy had a history of trouble.”

Ring speculated that his client would have been awarded around $5 million by a jury.

The agency has approved more than $10 million in civil settlements since last July 1.