Thursday, May 29, 2003 | 8:37 a.m.
A former Citizens Area Transit bus driver was sentenced to prison Wednesday in connection with the molestation of a mentally handicapped passenger, but a local attorney claims other disabled passengers are still at risk for abuse on city buses.
Attorney Douglas Cohen has sued both Antonio Gomez, 27, and his employer on behalf of the woman, then 24, who was sexually assaulted on a special services bus in full view of two other mentally handicapped passengers.
District Judge Sally Loehrer sentenced Gomez to eight to 18 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to two lesser charges stemming from the assault -- one count each of attempted sexual assault and battery with the intent to commit sexual assault.
Prosecutors said during the sentencing that the victim has the mental capacity of a 4-year-old.
"The defendant took advantage of a disabled individual," Chief Deputy District Attorney Bill Kephart said. "This was completely an act of dominance."
Cohen claims ATC Vancom of Nevada, the company that operates the buses, is equally responsible for the assault.
The lawsuit, filed last year in District Court, alleges that the company inadequately trains its drivers to transport people with mental and physical handicaps.
The absence of cameras inside the bus and the lack of assistants to help with passengers only compound the problem, Cohen said.
"This company should have the highest standard of care in protecting its vulnerable passengers," he said. "ATC never took any measures to improve the situation."
Cohen said ATC should take notice of Gomez's case and remedy the situation before more disabled people are victimized.
"ATC should be ashamed of the way they train these special services bus drivers," he said.
Kurt Bonds, an attorney for ATC, attended the sentencing but declined to comment on either the criminal or civil case. Valerie Michael, public information officer for the company, did not return calls seeking comment.
The civil case is scheduled to go to trial Aug. 19 before District Judge Kathy Hardcastle.
Gomez's attorney Diane Kappenman, who argued that her client should be placed on probation, said Gomez was never trained to work with handicapped passengers.
She said Gomez had difficulty controlling the passengers' behavior and had even quit his job for a brief period because the position became too stressful.
"He had no kind of training for this job," she said. "But this was the best paying route."
Authorities claimed Gomez sexually assaulted the woman in the bus in October 2001 while the bus was parked at a Sky Pointe Drive convenience store near North Rancho Drive and Centennial Parkway.
He had picked the woman up at Opportunity Village, where she assembled headsets, and was en route to the group home where she and the other two women resided.
An exam revealed evidence of a sexual assault, along with bruising.
Gomez, who is married with a child, eventually admitted to police that he'd had sex with the woman, but said it was consensual.
Gomez's wife and other family members were in the courtroom during the sentencing.
The victim's mother, who spoke during the sentencing, told Loehrer that her daughter has refused to ride public buses since the incident.
The woman now lives in a group home in California, the mother said.
"(Gomez) was in a position of trust and he violated that," she said. "He knew she was mentally challenged. For him to say it was consensual doesn't set well with me."
Kephart said the sexual assault wasn't the first instance of abuse on the bus.
Gomez told police he verbally abused the victim and other passengers frequently, and often turned the radio up loudly so that he couldn't hear them, Kephart said.
"This was completely an act of dominance, not an act of sex," he said. "(The victim) doesn't have the mental capacity to cope with what happened."
In exchange for Gomez's guilty plea, prosecutors dropped a single count of sexual assault, for which he faced a 10-year to life sentence.
Kephart said he agreed to the deal because he didn't want the woman to have to relive the trauma by testifying.
"I really struggled with negotiating this one," he said.
Kappenman told the judge her client was sexually abused as a child and that he had no prior criminal record.
"He's very embarrassed and ashamed by this," she said. "Let him overcome his lifetime of abuse. Prison cannot do him any good."
Before handing down the sentence, Loehrer expressed dissatisfaction with a psychosexual evaluation that deemed Gomez unlikely to reoffend.
"For a professional in our community to say that he is not a sexual predator is mind-boggling," she said. "In anyone's view, this is the beast running through the man. "
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