FORT COLLINS, Colo. — A school bus driver admitted Monday he physically abused 11 special needs students, pleading guilty to seven felony counts and four misdemeanors.
If his pleas are accepted by the judge – which won’t be known until mid-April – Tyler Zanella would see 153 other counts dismissed.
If the judge accepts the pleas and imposes the maximum sentence, Zanella could spend as much as 14½ years in prison for assaulting, abusing and harassing the students over three months. All of the victims have autism.
The attacks came to light after school officials watched surveillance video from Zanella’s bus.
“The footage I have personally seen – Tyler was standing over my daughter,” said Sabrina Herrick, the mother of one victim. “She was sitting in a bus seat, looking out the window of the bus, minding her own business. And he walks up, locks her into the seat – he’s leaning over the seat – and she turns and sees him and throws her arm up just automatically.
“And he shoves her arm down and then proceeded to spend the next three minutes standing over her, flicking her in the face repeatedly. And then he'd stop, and he’d look around and he'd see if anyone else was watching. And then he'd go back to it and start flicking her in the face. And by the end of it, she's just bawling her eyes out.”
Herrick opposed the plea deal, telling Judge Daniel McDonald that Zanella’s crimes weren’t a case of one bad mistake affecting a lot of people but rather the result of his decision to repeatedly abuse the kids on his bus.
But other parents at a Monday court hearing said they supported it and were ready to begin moving on from the episode.
Zanella’s 11 guilty pleas include the most serious count involving each of the victims in the case. Those included seven counts of felony assault, and two counts each of harassment child abuse, both misdemeanors.
If McDonald accepts the plea agreement, the sentence could range from probation on the low end to 14 ½ years in prison on the high end.
“Being realistic, I understand that it's probably not going to be probation,” defense attorney Andy Gavaldon told 9NEWS. “My client understands that. He respects that. He's prepared to take the punishment that this court determines to be reasonable under the circumstances.”
McDonald ordered a pre-sentence investigation and an evaluation of Zanella to determine whether he is a good candidate for community corrections.
McDonald scheduled a hearing April 12 to determine if he will accept the pleas and – if he does – to sentence Zanella.
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