A Westminster Public Schools bus driver – who is facing multiple child-sex charges – allegedly attempted to arrange a sexual encounter with someone he thought was a 14-year-old boy, according to court documents made public Friday.
Instead, the person Philip Ogren was allegedly communicating with was an undercover agent in the Department of Homeland Security.
Ogren, 66, was jailed Tuesday after arriving at a park in Evans for what investigators allege was a planned meeting with a teenage boy.
Ogren, who had driven for the school district since December 2014, faces charges of attempted sexual assault on a child, Internet luring of a child, Internet exploitation of a child and sexual exploitation of a child.
“This is a serious matter. We don't take it lightly,” said district spokesperson Amethyst Guthman on Thursday. “He passed all the background and safety checks when he was hired.”
An arrest affidavit obtained by 9NEWS on Friday describes in great detail the investigation that led to Ogren’s arrest.
According to the document, it began when an undercover agent saw an ad on the Internet posted by someone looking to meet someone for a sexual encounter. The agent began communicating with the person who posted the ad through e-mail and eventually text messages.
That led to the arranged meeting on Tuesday morning at Prairie View Park in Evans. Officers were waiting and arrested Ogren there.
The district says after learning of the arrest, they immediately placed Ogren on leave and notified 220 families whose children take his routes each day. The district wouldn’t name the three routes Ogren drove, but 9NEWS confirmed that one of them included students from Mesa Elementary School.
“We have no reason to believe any of our children were victimized or were at risk at all,” Guthman, the district spokeswoman, said. “The safety of our children is our number one priority.”
Police wouldn’t say where the attempted assault happened, but did confirm it was not on any of the kids he drove.
On Wednesday Ogren openly resigned his position with the schools district before being booked into the Weld County Jail on $10,000 bond.
“The safety of our children is our number one priority,” Guthman said. “These are obviously very serious allegations and we take them seriously.”
Ogren will appear in court on March 18.
This is the notice posted to the school district's website.
“Westminster Public Schools has been informed that one of our school bus drivers was arrested on Tuesday, March 8, 2016, in Weld County in connection with an investigation into internet sex crimes. At this point, there is no indication that any of our children are involved or have been victimized.The safety of our students is our highest priority and we take these allegations very seriously. We are fully cooperating with investigators.
We have identified the bus routes driven by the employee, and Westminster Public Schools is personally reaching out to families whose children may have been on buses driven by the employee. Again, at this point there is no reason to believe any of our children were at risk.
The employee in question, passed all required background and safety checks when he was hired in December of 2014. He is no longer employed by the District.
The Weld County District Attorney’s office is handling the case.”