FORMER MTA BUS DRIVER SENTENCED TO SERVE 2 YEARS IN SCHEME TO SELL STOLEN DAY PASSES

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that Francisco Rivera, Jr., age 53, of Park Heights Avenue in Baltimore City, was sentenced to six years in the Department of Corrections, with all but two of those years suspended, by Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Roger Brown. Rivera was convicted of felony theft and conspiracy to commit felony theft (by a jury) on January 27, 2006.

During the three-day trial, the jury heard evidence that Rivera, a Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) bus driver, engaged in a scheme to illegally print day passes from his MTA bus and then sell those passes at a discount on the black market. The investigation began after MTA detectives learned that Rivera had been regularly printing large numbers of day passes for months. On April 17, 2003, Rivera boarded his assigned bus ½ hour early and printed out 334 day passes in 21 minutes prior to beginning his scheduled route. Detectives from the MTA Police observed Rivera hand a stack of passes to Leon Scott and Leroy Stevenson, the street-level sellers, while at a bus stop. Detectives followed Scott and Stevenson, and arrested them after observing them engage in two hand-to-hand transactions. MTA detectives recovered 313 MTA day passes valued at $939.00, and $277.00 in U.S. currency from Scott and Stevenson, and arrested Rivera thereafter. Scott and Stevenson entered guilty pleas at earlier proceedings. Rivera will be on supervised probation for three years following his release from prison.

The case was investigated by the Maryland Transit Administration Police and prosecuted by the Office of the Attorney General, Criminal Investigations Division.