THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2005

D.A. BROWN: SCHOOL BUS DRIVER AND MATRON CHARGED WITH ENDANGERING YOUNG DISABLED CHILD
Allegedly Left 5-Year-Old Queens Boy Unattended On Bus After Parking Vehicle in Brooklyn

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that a driver for the Logan Bus Company and a matron assigned to the driver’s bus have been charged with child endangerment after leaving a five-year-old learning disabled boy alone on a school bus earlier this week. The child’s ordeal lasted more than an hour and only ended when a passerby noticed the child crying hysterically on the unlocked parked bus and rescued him.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendants are charged with endangering the welfare of a young learning disabled child. They allegedly failed to carry out their responsibilities, which require that they safely transport the children under their care to school, return them to their parents and thoroughly check the bus for sleeping or hiding children. Their alleged failure to carry out their responsibilities put this youngster in jeopardy and endangered his well-being.”

District Attorney Brown identified the defendants as school bus driver Ezekiel Jeremiah, 43, of 1173 East 55th Street in Brooklyn and bus matron Lillian Ortiz, 50, of 95-21 101st Street in Queens. Both are employed by the Logan Bus Company located at 97-14 Atlantic Avenue in Ozone Park, Queens and have been charged with Endangering the Welfare of a Child. They each face up to one year in prison if convicted.

The defendants were arrested shortly after the incident and arraigned earlier today before Queens Criminal Court Justice Stephen Knopf who released both defendants in their own recognizance and set a return date of October 26, 2005.

District Attorney Brown said that, according to the charges, on September 20, 2005, the defendants picked up the five-year-old boy from his home on 175th Street in Queens at 7:10 a.m. The child was to be dropped off at P.S. 118, located at 190-20 109th Road in Queens. As part of their job description, both defendants are required to check the bus thoroughly for sleeping or hiding children inside of the bus prior to vacating the bus or when the bus is left unattended. At approximately 10:20 a.m., on the same block as the defendant Jeremiah’s Brooklyn residence, the victim was observed by a passerby sitting in the third row of the unoccupied bus wearing a secured lap seatbelt and crying for his mother.

Assistant District Attorney Kristina Sapaskis of the District Attorneys Criminal Court/Intake Bureau is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Joan I. Ritter, Bureau Chief of the District Attorney Criminal Court Bureau and Kimberly A. Affronti, Deputy Chief, Assistant District Attorneys Laura M. Heningman, Bureau Chief of the District Attorney’s Intake Bureau and Susan M. Kane, Deputy Chief and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Trials James C. Quinn and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Trials John H. Larsen.

It should be noted that a criminal charge is merely an accusation and that the defendants are innocent until proven guilty.