October 15, 2010 Bus driver gets probation for student molestation www.privateofficer.com
SHALIMAR Fla Oct 15 2010 — The former Okaloosa County school bus driver accused of child molestation pleaded no contest Thursday to felony battery.
Circuit Judge John Brown sentenced Michael Jeffry Bowersock to three years probation.
Bowersock originally was charged with lewd and lascivious molestation of a child.
The victim, an elementary-aged girl, told sheriff’s deputies Bowersock had spanked her bare bottom on several occasions. However, the girl changed her story and even recanted it once since Bowersock’s arrest, according to Bill Bishop with the state attorney’s office.
“We just didn’t have a case anymore,” Bishop said. “There was no physical evidence, no video and no other evidence of significance.”
Bowersock was first charged in May 2009 after the girl’s mother complained to lawmen. He was charged again in May of this year in a separate incident involving a student.
According to the initial incident report, the first victim told investigators that Bowersock made other students stand outside his school bus while he spanked her bare bottom on the bus.
The report also said Bowersock had spanked her bare bottom when she was alone with him on a school bus. He also ordered the victim to pull down her pants and lie on the floor of the bus as it was traveling, the report said. The child said she was the only person on the bus at that time.
In a deposition July 14, the child said Bowersock on another occasion “instructed another girl to pull down her pants and told the victim to spank the other girl’s bare bottom.”
The victim didn’t disclose that in the original interview because she said she was afraid she would get in trouble if her father found out she had spanked another girl.
Bishop said the change in the victim’s story persuaded the state to seek the lesser charge of battery, a third-degree felony.
Along with his probation, Bowersock is to have no contact with the victim, have mental health evaluations and have no unsupervised contact with minors. Those conditions could be terminated after he serves two-thirds of his probation, Brown said.
Bowersock was also granted permission to serve his probation in Alabama, where he moved shortly after bonding out of jail.
Source:nfdailynews
Tags: Bus driver gets probation for student molestation, Michael Jeffry Bowersock
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