Hamilton County School Bus Driver Accused of Raping Student
But Hamilton county investigators have charged a school bus driver with forcible rape of a student.
A 15 year old girl didn’t make it home on the school bus from Sale Creek high school on Wednesday afternoon.
Instead she showed up after 10 pm and explained that she had been whisked away in the personal car of the school bus driver–and raped.
SHERIFF JIM HAMMOND "At this time we are charging him with rape……he has a 350-thousand dollar bond."
Sheriff Jim Hammond is talking about 34 year old contract driver Alexander Rodriquez who lives in Ooltewah.
The girl tells a story of first being taken to the Hamilton county bus barns—and then into Rodriquez’ car.
SHERIFF JIM HAMMOND, HAMILTON COUNTY "She did confide to her parents ..parent or parents in this case…and to law enforcement what exactly happened."
The girl told sheriff’s deputies she ended up at this motel on Lee Highway and ushered into a room on the second level where she described the attack. But the question remains of what role the girl herself may have played.
SHERIFF JIM HAMMOND "I can only tell you that this was a 15 year old girl ..who was following the direction of an adult . To what extent she cooperated or he was able to talk her into it..that will be part of the investigation."
Sheriff Hammond says the girl is fully cooperating with the investigation and deputies are getting some cooperation from Rodriquez.
But stressed that any adult charged with caring for a student should be thoroughly checked out.
SHERIFF JIM HAMMOND "I think its extremely important that we have in place the right background checks…the right supervision so that these kind of incidents are held to a very very minimum."
The suspect is actually employed by Durham School Services, a contractor who provides most of the drivers for the school system.
Transportation supervisor Ben Coulter says Rodriquez is now on unpaid leave.
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