NY 'Palsy' Bus Driver Has Long Rap Sheet

The man driving the bus that left 22-year old Ed Wynn Rivera stranded on it in freezing weather for almost 20 hours, allegedly has a rap sheet of 28 arrests. The New York Post reports that this list reveals that 41-year old Waler Gibbs of Manhattan, a new employee of the Outstanding Transport bus company in Brooklyn, was arrested for assaulting a New York City police officer and also has counts of forgery, grand larceny, theft of service and drug crimes on his record. But New York police say in the Rivera case, Gibbs is not likely to face any charges. The bus matron, 51-year old Linda Hockaday of Brooklyn has been charged with allegedly giving the all-clear to Gibbs, even though she knew Rivera, who suffers from cerebral palsy and cannot speak, was still on board. Hockaday allegedly told police she was in a rush to attend a church event on New Year's eve, and simply assumed that Gibbs would just drive Rivera home. But sources say Gibbs, who had been on the job only two days, told cops he was unaware Rivera was still on the bus and that it was not his duty to double-check that the vehicle was empty. . Rivera was treated for hypothermia at Brookdale Hospital and is expected to make a full recovery. The young man was supposed to be dropped off at his family's East Harlem apartment after attending a special-needs class in downtown Manhattan. Instead he sat on the bus, with his seat belt on, shivering and curled up in a ball to try to keep warm in freezing temperatures. The New York state agency that clears drivers to work with special-needs children, the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, tells the Post that it never received Gibbs' fingerprints or background check from the company. That driver information is supposed to be submitted by the bus company before a driver can start work. There has been no comment today from Charles Curcio, owner of Outstanding Transport about this new information.