FORMER BUS DRIVER GETS 30 YEARS IN CHILD GROPING CASE
In a sexual assault trial that weighed the accounts of two kindergarten students versus an adult bus driver, a Travis County jury sided with the children and returned guilty verdicts on all counts Friday.
Former Austin Independent School District driver Leon Young, 64, was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child by contact. Later, the jury heard about the numerous psychological issues the victim incurred as a result of the attack and sentenced Young to 30 years in prison.
The girl, who was 6 at the time of the incident, testified that she was groped by Young after boarding his bus at Walnut Creek Elementary in April 2015, two months after a school nurse said she saw the girl straddled between Young’s legs with the driver rubbing her back for two or three minutes. Young and the girl hugged every day, and he regularly offered her Life Savers candy.
The verdict came just 40 minutes into Friday’s deliberations, likely suggesting that any holdout jurors had reached a conclusion overnight after the jury deliberated for four hours Thursday.
In closing arguments Thursday, prosecutor Kathleen Morgan theorized that Young targeted the girl because she was shy and quiet. Morgan said Young chose to carry out the attack late in the day so he could go unnoticed amid the commotion of school letting out.
Young’s attorney, Ray Espersen, said the girl made a false report and argued that witnesses had exaggerated their story after originally saying they saw Young touch the girl’s back and stomach.
The investigation into the assault began when a bus passenger told her mother that she saw Young with his hand down the child’s pants.
Young consistently denied the allegations in an interview with police, insisting his contact with the girl was limited to the hugs. But he got the attention of investigators when he appeared to suggest he might have touched the girl if he thought he could have gotten away with it.
“If I think I get by with something like that, I’m gonna do it,” he said.
The girl, who is 9, moved to Corpus Christi shortly after the attack to live with a new family after her mother lost custody of her. The adoptive mother took the witness stand Friday and said the girl suffers from numerous mental health issues that a doctor attributed to the assault. The girl has a habit of pulling out her hair and constantly tugs at her underwear out of fear someone might touch her, the mother said.
Scarred by the assault, the girl now will ride buses driven only by women.
“She shies from males,” the mother said. “She doesn’t want to be alone with them.”
Young, a divorced father of two, faced five to 99 years for assault and two to 20 years for indecency. He had never previously been convicted of a felony.
“Very caring person,” Justin Young, his 33-year-old son, testified.
Young and his sister testified that their father was a churchgoing man who adored his two grandchildren and never would have harmed them. Young’s ex-wife called the former car salesman a tireless worker and a decent man.