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State Not Charging Ex-HART Driver In Battery Case

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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 25, 2008

Updated: 06/25/2008 02:30 pm

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• Surveillance Video From The Bus
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Alphonso Hicks

TAMPA - The state attorney's office has decided not to prosecute a former bus driver for Hillsborough Area Regional Transit who had been accused of making sexual advances toward a passenger and preventing her from getting off the bus.

"After reviewing the video, we could not prove a crime had been committed," state attorney's spokeswoman Pam Bondi said today.

On April 1, Hillsborough County deputies arrested Alphonso Hicks, 40, of Tampa. He was charged with battery and false imprisonment.

The 245-pound man was accused of propositioning a passenger March 27 on Route 83. The connector bus circulates near the University of South Florida.

The passenger said he refused to allow her to leave after the bus returned to the University Area Transit Center, 13110 N. 27th St., a HART spokeswoman said.

According to the sheriff's office, Hicks walked over to the woman when the other passengers had left the bus and took her hand and placed it against his body.

Hicks, a HART driver since December 2006, was arrested at his home and later released after posting $2,500 bail.

HART officials reviewed a videotape and fired him.

"I guess that they just didn't see enough evidence from their perspective to follow through with prosecution," HART spokeswoman Kathy Karalekas said of the state attorney's office. "But as far as HART is concerned, he still did violate our procedures. He was fired for cause.

"What he did was, he closed the door and approached her in the aisle and gave her no way to exit the bus."

Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at jpoltilove@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7691.

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