The driver of a Boston Public Schools bus that struck and killed a 5-year-old in Hyde Park last April was involved in a hit-and-run crash just a few months later as he drove on a suspended license in Brockton, prosecutors said on Thursday.
That alleged incident in Brockton publicly came to light on Thursday as Jean Charles, 39, appeared in Suffolk Superior Court for the first time to answer to manslaughter and other charges in the death of Lens Joseph.
Charles, 39, pleaded not guilty to all of the charges related to the death of Lens, and his lawyer maintains the crash was a horrible accident. The child’s death shocked and saddened the city a year ago, and spawned multiple inquiries and exposed issues surrounding Boston’s immensely complicated and expensive busing paradigm.
Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Ursula Knight cited the Brockton crash in court as she successfully argued that Charles should be barred from driving while he’s out on bail in the Boston case.
“In the aftermath of this and sometime after this incident itself, the defendant chose to drive again,” Knight said.
After the accident involving Joseph, Charles’ license was suspended immediately, before charges were filed, Knight said. As that investigation played out — and as the child’s family sued him —Charles again got behind the wheel of a vehicle, and again was involved in a crash, police allege in Charles’ home city of Brockton.
According to the police report, Charles left the scene of the Brockton crash before police arrived. He told a witness that he had to leave to drop children off at school, the report states.
One of the other people involved in the crash snapped a photo of Charles’ car, so police tracked it down and issued him a citation for charges of driving on a suspended license and leaving the scene of a crash with injury, according to the report. It’s not clear from the report who was at fault in the crash.
Earlier this year, a Suffolk County grand jury handed up an indictment for the Hyde Park crash.
During Charles’ arraignment Thursday on those charges, including involuntary manslaughter, Knight said Charles acted negligently, failing to take any of multiple steps that should have protected the boy.
Charles could have noted a broken safety arm and not driven the bus at all, she told the court. Or he could have made sure to drop Lens Joseph off at his house like normal, rather than across the street, Knight said. Or at the very least, she said, he should have paused for more than a few seconds before accelerating to make sure Lens was not right in front of the bus.
But, Knight said, the driver did none of that.
Charles’ lawyer, Ken Anderson, described the death as a “tragic accident” rather than a crime.
“We can’t imagine the loss they’re going through,” he told the court. “There are no winners in this case.”
Relatives of Lens attended the hearing, some wearing pins with his name. They did not speak to the press afterward.
Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden, who attended the arraignment, told reporters the investigation leading up to Charles’ indictment had been complex and challenging.
“Lens got off the school bus that day with the same expectation that any child has: to get off safely and to get home to their family,” Hayden said. “It is the reckless actions of this defendant that have opened an unfillable hole in the hearts of everyone who knew Lens and who loved him.”
First Assistant Clerk Ed Curley set Charles’ bail at $15,000, an amount both the prosecution and defense had agreed upon. Court records show someone posted bail on his behalf, so he was released under the condition that the native of Haiti surrender his passport and also not drive.
Lens’ shocking death last year raised questions of how a man who did not have an active license to drive a school bus ended up behind the wheel that afternoon.
Charles, of Brockton, had worked for Transdev, the company that Boston contracts to undertake its busing, for about two years prior to the crash. At the time, his state-required certification to drive a school bus had expired, but, nonetheless he was serving as a substitute driver, Knight said. He resigned shortly before a termination hearing in May.
Asked if the district attorney’s office is probing the company, Knight told reporters, “We are certainly looking into other information that has been received during the investigation.”
An independent investigation of Boston Public Schools bus operations last summer found that the city and Transdev failed to properly manage the system before the crash. Transdev did not keep track of bus accidents or the credentialing of drivers, while the city did not inspect accident and training records, according to the investigation by Natashia Tidwell, a former federal prosecutor.
Last summer, the Joseph family filed a civil suit in Suffolk Superior Court alleging negligence by Charles and Transdev. In response to the lawsuit, Charles asserted his constitutional protection against self-incrimination and did not testify.
Prosecutors said a witness saw the bus Charles was driving hit a mail truck while children were on board, then speed away. The witness also saw Charles being “belligerent and annoyed at the children on the bus,” Knight said. The prosecutor said all this concerned the woman so much that she called police.
Charles also appears to have missed several stops, and approached Lens Joseph’s house from the opposite direction as usual, she said. That’s why when Lens scooped up his Superman backpack and stepped off the bus, he had to cross the street, something he wasn’t used to doing after drop-off, Knight said.
And because the “safety arm” that normally comes down in front of the bus was broken, Lens and his cousin were not dissuaded from walking directly in front of the bus. Knight said Charles should have noted that malfunction — as well as a blown-out tire — and not taken that bus.
But he didn’t, she said, and he only waited a few seconds after Lens walked off the bus to accelerate.
Sean Cotter can be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com. Follow him @cotterreporter.