Past on-the-road incidents surround van driver

Carolyn Hileman - The Voice* | February 29, 2008

By Rae Kruger

MARSHALL — The woman charged with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide in the Feb. 19 Lakeview School bus crash was apparently involved in a driving-without-a-license incident in which a man was cited in Kandiyohi County in January, the West Central Tribune reported Wednesday.

The Kandiyohi County incident would be at least the second driving- without-a-license incident connected to the woman since 2006.

In January, the woman, now identified by federal immigration authorities as Olga Marina Franco, was a passenger in a 1998 van, when the driver, Samuel Melendez, 28, was stopped by a Kandiyohi County Deputy, the Tribune said. The van is believed to be the same one she was driving in the Feb. 19 school bus crash near the intersection of Lyon County Road 24 and Minnesota Highway 23 near Cottonwood.

In January, Melendez was cited for driving without a license, and the passenger, who identified herself as Alianiss N. Morales, said she also did not have a license, the Tribune said. Morales is the alias Franco gave to authorities after the Lakeview crash.

The pair said they were returning to work from Cottonwood and they lived in Willmar, the Tribune said.

Melendez paid a $187 fine for driving without a license in Kandiyohi County Court on Feb. 1, the Tribune said.

The complaint filed in Lyon County District Court lists a Samuel Rivera Melendez as Franco’s boyfriend.

The Lyon County Court complaint said a Minnesota State Trooper used an identification card photograph to positively identify Franco as the Alianiss Nunez Morales, 23, of Montevideo, who was cited for driving without a license in Montevideo on May 25, 2006. Morales paid a fine on the charge, court records said.