A Metro bus driver who was suspended last week after officials discovered he was openly promoting and handing out campaign material for District mayoral candidate Vincent Orange was fired Friday, officials said.
It wasn’t the political stumping that lead to the dismissal of Sidney Davis — though he was put on leave last week — it was that he failed to mention he was a convicted murderer when he applied for the position in 2003, officials said. The discovery was made after an internal review of Davis’ personnel file last week, officials said.
Davis answered “no” to an application question that asked whether he had ever been convicted of any “offense other than a traffic violation,” officials said.
The 60-year-old, a Metro-bus operator since March 2003, served 21 years at Lorton prison for first-degree murder.
Davis was put on administrativeleave last week after a local newspaper profiled his political activities aboard the S2 bus from Silver Spring. Metro officials said his dismissal had nothing to with those activities.
“His dismissal was not related to his political activities,” Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said in a statement.
Metro hiring guidelines prohibit applicants convicted of certain crimes from holding specific jobs within the 10,000-employee agency regardless of when an applicant was convicted. The agency would not comment on whether Davis would still have been hired considering his past, other than saying applications are considered on a case-by-case basis.
Orange, a D.C. Council member, D-Ward 5, led a small but vocal march in front of Metro headquarters in Northwest Monday morning asking transit officials to reconsider.
Orange said Davis has “paid his debt to society” and feared the action would send the message that WMATA “does not support ex-offenders’ efforts to be productive, full functioning members of society.”
Orange said he was not aware that Davis had falsely answered the application question. Davis, who has said he didn’t commit the crime, has been a leading activist for the ex-offender community in the D.C. area. During his time in prison, he earned his general equivalency diploma and a bachelor’s degree from the University of the District of Columbia.
Farbstein said the transit agency has an appeals process that is available to Davis, should he decide to appeal his termination.
