{"id":1279454,"date":"2023-12-01T06:26:56","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T12:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1279454"},"modified":"2023-12-03T00:08:14","modified_gmt":"2023-12-03T06:08:14","slug":"charges-dismissed-for-former-bus-driver-involved-in-fatal-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1279454","title":{"rendered":"Charges dismissed for fatal bus crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"ATHENS — A former Athens school bus driver charged in connection to a fatal crash with a train in 2019 had his charges dismissed. According to our news partner KETK, in a Henderson County court on Nov. 21, 83-year-old John Franklin Stevens had his injury to a child and criminally negligent homicide cases dismissed. He was charged in connection to a January 2019 crash with a Union Pacific train that killed 13-year-old Christopher Bonilla and injured 9-year-old Joselyne Torres. He was driving the bus at the time when it was hit by the train and reportedly was pushed one-quarter of a mile before coming to a stop.<\/p>\n

Stevens\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 case has been in the courts since he pleaded not guilty in 2019. Factors like Union Pacific employees requesting immunity, the COVID-19 pandemic and changes in prosecution all contributed in the case\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s delay. Many community members voiced support for Stevens and opposition to his prosecution during the process.<\/p>\n

In 2021, the Henderson County District Attorney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office recused themselves, citing a conflict of interest. The Texas Attorney General\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Office took up the case shortly after, announcing in June 2021 that they would be sending the case back to a grand jury because they weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happy with the language of the indictments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ATHENS — A former Athens school bus driver charged in connection to a fatal crash with a train in 2019 had his charges dismissed. According to our news partner KETK, in a Henderson County court on Nov. 21, 83-year-old John Franklin Stevens had his injury to a child and criminally negligent homicide cases dismissed. He … Continue reading Charges dismissed for fatal bus crash<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":1279462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2023\/12\/athensbus-175x136.png","fifu_image_alt":"Charges dismissed for former bus driver involved in fatal crash","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1279454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-08 04:41:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2023\/12\/athensbus-175x136.png","fifu_image_alt":"Charges dismissed for former bus driver involved in fatal crash","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1279454"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1279746,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279454\/revisions\/1279746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1279462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1279454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1279454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1279454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}