Chris
July 28th 03, 04:54 AM
[http://www.post-gazette.com/printer.asp]
Probation likely for school bus driver who spanked teenagers
Suspect admits his role in incident, OKs plea
Thursday, July 17, 2003
By Virginia Kopas Joe, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
A veteran Ligonier school bus driver agreed to plead guilty
yesterday to spanking two teenagers who believed they had been caught on
surveillance tape having sex on a school bus.
Robert Scott Lemmon, 49, driver for the Lodestar Bus Lines, which
serves the Ligonier Valley School District, appeared before Ligonier
District Justice Denise Thiel. His attorney, Chris Huffman, said Lemmon
and the Westmoreland County district attorney's office reached a tentative
plea agreement.
"Mr. Lemmon wants to put this behind him," Huffman said.
Lemmon had no prior record. In late June, Ligonier Township police
charged him with simple assault, indecent assault, endangering the welfare
of children, corruption of minors and invasion of privacy.
The felony charge of endangerment was dropped yesterday. The
remaining charges are misdemeanors and Lemmon is expected to get four
years' probation.
Police said Lemmon, after saying that he had seen a surveillance
video recorded on a school bus, persuaded a 17-year-old boy and
16-year-old girl to go to Old Colony Hunt Club on Peoples Road in Ligonier
Township on the afternoon of June 24 and told them to shed their pants so
he could spank them.
The boy and girl did not ride Lemmon's bus, and the Lodestar firm
would release no information on him. But police charged that Lemmon told
the teens he had viewed a bus company tape from late April showing the two
engaged in a sex act. The bus company videotapes students as they ride on
buses.
According to the criminal complaint, Lemmon told the teens he saw
the tape but destroyed it by spilling hot coffee on it. When the teens
said that they "would be in trouble if their parents found out and would
probably get spanked," Lemmon told the two that he was going to spank
them, because he had covered it up.
Police said that on June 24 Lemmon took the girl to the hunting club
and forced her to remove her pants and underwear before spanking her. The
boy went to the camp three hours later and was also forced to remove his
pants and underwear and was spanked. Court documents say that after the
boy left, Lemmon made the girl disrobe again, but did not touch her.
Lemmon has been free on bond.
Probation likely for school bus driver who spanked teenagers
Suspect admits his role in incident, OKs plea
Thursday, July 17, 2003
By Virginia Kopas Joe, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
A veteran Ligonier school bus driver agreed to plead guilty
yesterday to spanking two teenagers who believed they had been caught on
surveillance tape having sex on a school bus.
Robert Scott Lemmon, 49, driver for the Lodestar Bus Lines, which
serves the Ligonier Valley School District, appeared before Ligonier
District Justice Denise Thiel. His attorney, Chris Huffman, said Lemmon
and the Westmoreland County district attorney's office reached a tentative
plea agreement.
"Mr. Lemmon wants to put this behind him," Huffman said.
Lemmon had no prior record. In late June, Ligonier Township police
charged him with simple assault, indecent assault, endangering the welfare
of children, corruption of minors and invasion of privacy.
The felony charge of endangerment was dropped yesterday. The
remaining charges are misdemeanors and Lemmon is expected to get four
years' probation.
Police said Lemmon, after saying that he had seen a surveillance
video recorded on a school bus, persuaded a 17-year-old boy and
16-year-old girl to go to Old Colony Hunt Club on Peoples Road in Ligonier
Township on the afternoon of June 24 and told them to shed their pants so
he could spank them.
The boy and girl did not ride Lemmon's bus, and the Lodestar firm
would release no information on him. But police charged that Lemmon told
the teens he had viewed a bus company tape from late April showing the two
engaged in a sex act. The bus company videotapes students as they ride on
buses.
According to the criminal complaint, Lemmon told the teens he saw
the tape but destroyed it by spilling hot coffee on it. When the teens
said that they "would be in trouble if their parents found out and would
probably get spanked," Lemmon told the two that he was going to spank
them, because he had covered it up.
Police said that on June 24 Lemmon took the girl to the hunting club
and forced her to remove her pants and underwear before spanking her. The
boy went to the camp three hours later and was also forced to remove his
pants and underwear and was spanked. Court documents say that after the
boy left, Lemmon made the girl disrobe again, but did not touch her.
Lemmon has been free on bond.