ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 21, 1995 TAG: 9512210106
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER AND JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITERS
NOTE: Below
A Roanoke school bus driver who has been charged with dealing crack cocaine was convicted in May of reckless driving, passing a stopped school bus and other offenses, according to one of his attorneys.
But city school officials apparently didn't know that, and Wayne A. Hicks continued to drive a bus until a grand jury indictment on the drug charge was unsealed this week.
Now Hicks has been suspended, in keeping with the school system's policy for employees who are charged with a crime - at least the ones the system finds out about.
Superintendent Wayne Harris said Wednesday night that the school system does criminal background checks before employees are hired, but not afterward.
"We wouldn't have known about" Hicks' convictions in May, he said.
"There are no spot checks or random checks" for criminal convictions after employees are hired, he said.
Explaining why, he said: "I'm an eternal optimist. Most people do the right thing. You don't set up a system to play 'Gotcha!' Ninety-five percent of the people abide by the policies."
Richard Kelley, assistant superintendent for city school operations, said earlier Wednesday that the school system does give random drug tests to bus drivers after they have been hired.
Kelley did not know how long Hicks, 23, had been driving a bus. Chauncey Logan, the schools' director of transportation, did not return calls.
Kelley said there was nothing in Hicks' background that precluded him from being hired as a driver.
"He met all of the requirements and had not failed any of the tests or standards," Kelley said, adding that school officials had received no complaints about him.
Tony Anderson, one of Hicks' attorneys, said Hicks was convicted of reckless driving, passing a stopped school bus with lights flashing, resisting arrest and escape in General District Court in May. Hicks was a school bus driver at the time, Anderson said.
He has appealed and is to have a new trial on those charges in January in Circuit Court.
Hicks was arraigned on the drug charge Wednesday in U.S. District Court. He pleaded not guilty.
Harris will decide later whether Hicks will be paid while he is off work, depending on the facts in the case.
School officials did not know Hicks was under investigation. The probe was started by Virginia State Police, but federal investigators took it over because of the quantity of drugs involved and Hicks' job as a school bus driver.
Authorities said there was no indication that Hicks was dealing drugs on the job.
Police confiscated 38 grams of crack, with a street value of $3,800, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
David Hammond, a special agent with state police, said investigators followed people they suspected of dealing crack from Montgomery County to Hicks' home on the 2100 block of Moorman Road N.W. on Sept. 6 and pulled them over after they left. Hammond said police got enough information to get a search warrant for Hicks' residence.
Hicks led police to a pound of marijuana, an assault rifle and a revolver in his bedroom, and the 38 grams of crack buried in the basement, Hammond said.
Prosecutors had planned to charge him with a drug-related firearms charge that carries a five-year mandatory additional sentence, Hammond said. But a Supreme Court decision handed down Dec. 6 - six days before Hicks was indicted by a grand jury - said guns must be "used or carried" during a drug transaction in order for a drug defendant to be charged with the additional crime. Before the ruling, prosecutors had charged drug suspects with the crime if their guns were considered "accessible,.''
Staff writer Lisa K. Garcia contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 76 linesby CNB