The owner and manager of a Paterson-based school bus company were charged Thursday with covering up its use of unqualified drivers, failure to conduct mandatory drug testing and criminal background checks on them as well as aides and its operation of unsafe buses, authorities said.
The owner, Shelim Khalique, 51, of Wayne, the manager, Henry Rhodes, 56, of Paterson, and the company, A-1 Elegant Tours, Inc., also known as Eastern Star Transportation, LLC, were all charged with conspiracy, false representations for a government contract, theft by deception and tampering with public records or information, according to a release from the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.
The two men were also charged with misconduct by a corporate official.
“We have rightly focused considerable attention in recent years on improving safety and security within our schools, but we also must ensure that children are safe while being transported to and from school,” Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said in a statement. “As a parent and public official, I have no higher priority than protecting our children. This bus company allegedly lied about its employees and equipment to secure contracts, and then had unqualified drivers, convicted felons, and those under the influence drive and supervise young children each day in what were frequently unsafe vehicles. This is an unconscionable case of contract fraud.”
A search warrant executed at the company yielded personnel files that revealed the company hired numerous drivers who did not have valid commercial driver’s licenses or required endorsements, had suspended licenses, and/or had criminal records, the office said.
The company also employed aides with criminal records and several employee files were missing mandatory records of fingerprinting, background checks, and drug testing, officials said.
State law requires school bus drivers and aides to undergo drug testing and criminal background checks, and drivers or aides with criminal records or known substance abuse issues are prohibited from driving or working on school buses, Grewal said.
The owner, manager and company submitted documents listing the names of certain drivers and aides to be employed on bus routes transporting public school students, when in reality other employees who were not properly licensed were transporting students on those routes, the office said. They also allegedly submitted false information concealing the criminal backgrounds of drivers and aides.
Two of the company’s former bus drivers were facing pending criminal charges in Essex and Passaic counties for allegedly driving with one or more children on board while under the influence of drugs, according to the release. The driver in Essex County crashed the bus and the other is a registered sex offender under Megan’s Law, the office said.
A-1 had contracts with public school districts in Essex, Hudson, Passaic and Union counties from 2016 to 2020 but the charges filed Thursday relate only to the company’s contracts in Essex County, which totaled more than $1 million, authorities said.
The specific school districts the company contracted with were not released Thursday, however, there was a NorthJersey.com report in 2018 which stated that Paterson schools canceled a contract and broke off its relationship with the company after numerous inspection violations and a child who was left on a bus.
On May 31, 2019, investigators conducted surprise inspections of A-1′s buses at various schools after they dropped off students in the morning and almost all of the buses failed inspection so badly that they were impounded and were not allowed to be driven off the school properties, the office said.
In 2018, the Motor Vehicle Commission cited the company and its driver numerous times, including 22 citations for allowing a disqualified driver to operate a motor vehicle, nine citations for failure to possess a valid CDL with operating a motor vehicle, five for failure to possess valid endorsements and one for driving with a suspended license, officials said.
A-1 used various tactics to avoid Motor Vehicle Commission inspections and citations including diverting unlicensed drivers away from inspection sites and having drivers keep their buses at their homes overnight, according to the release.
An attorney for Khalique, Joseph Rotella, told NJ Advance Media that his client “denies the allegation of any criminal wrongdoing.”
“He looks forward to seeing the evidence the state claims shows that he committed a crime,” Rotella said.
Khalique was separately charged Thursday with charges related to alleged voter fraud in Paterson’s local election held last month.
Rhodes’ attorney, Howard Lesnik, declined to comment Thursday evening.
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Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com.
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