A Grafton school bus driver is facing kidnapping and child endangerment charges after he allegedly made unscheduled stops and left children inside the bus, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
Redi Gace, 54, of Worcester was arrested on two
two counts of kidnapping, reckless endangerment of a child, misleading a police investigation, and tampering with evidence, the Grafton Police Department said in a statement.
Gace pleaded not guilty to all charges in Westborough District Court on Wednesday.
According to court records, a parent made a complaint to AA Transportation, the bus company Gace worked for, after their child arrived home 30 minutes after the scheduled drop-off time.
The bus company discovered the interior school bus camera was not operational, and a front exterior camera was intentionally covered.
The bus camera footage and GPS showed that Gace deviated from the assigned route after departing the school and made an unauthorized stop at Abby Road.
At the stop, the driver turned off the bus and left a single child with special needs inside alone, court documents said.
A similar incident happened to a second child who was six minutes late to their assigned drop-off time.
According to court documents, Gace admitted to lying to the parent of one of the students about why he dropped off their child late.
Gace also lied to investigators and said the unauthorized stop was for a phone call to his attorney in Albania. Court documents state there was no record of this phone call.
According to Grafton police, the suspect was not assigned to general student transportation routes and is no longer employed by AA Transportation.
Grafton police are working closely with the Grafton School District and AA Transportation to ensure students’ safety, the statement said.
The school district has also contacted the families of all students who may have had contact with the suspect.
According to the Worcester district attorney’s office, Gace is being held on $50,000 bail with the conditions of house arrest with GPS monitoring, exclusion zones for victim’s houses, no contact with the victims, no contact with children under 16, and surrendering his passport.
Gace is due back in court on Feb. 13 for a probable cause hearing.
“We encourage parents to have age-appropriate conversations with their children about this matter and to reinforce the importance of reporting any concerning behavior to a trusted adult,” police said.
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