A bus driver and a matron have been indicted for leaving a mentally disabled man to die horribly in a sweltering passenger van, The Post has learned.
Barry Kurt and Akilah Toppin were arraigned on criminally negligent homicide charges Thursday for the Aug. 2, 2011, death of Lonnie Eason, 48, in East Harlem.
Kurt and Toppin had taken Eason and five others to the AHRC training center on Lexington Avenue but apparently just forgot the 5-foot-8, 200-pound Eason was in the back seat.
Eason, who suffered severe brain damage after getting an infection as an infant, “couldn’t speak, so he couldn’t speak out,” said his brother, Leroy.
The van was in direct sunlight with the windows closed on the 92-degree day, and temperatures are estimated to have reached over 120 degrees inside the van.
“Lonnie would have never left the bus because he was told and trained you don’t get off the bus without somebody helping you,” said the family’s lawyer, Robert Sharron.
By the time the afternoon matron found him six hours later, he was dead — and still sitting upright with his seat belt on.
The city Medical Examiner’s Office listed the cause of death as hyperthermia.
Kurt and Toppin pleaded not guilty and were released without bail.