Molestation Report Questioned Testimony Reveals Apparent Inconsistencies In Girls’ Accounts Of Alleged Incident On School Bus

One of two kindergarten girls accusing a former Loon Lake school bus driver of molestation told a different story to school officials, according to testimony in a pretrial hearing Tuesday.

Testimony also indicated up to four other children may have been on the bus between Sept. 28 and Oct. 16 when driver Patrick T. Nesbitt, 41, allegedly fondled the two girls. Loon Lake School Superintendent Steve Waunch said the other four kindergartners all told him nothing happened.

Waunch said one of Nesbitt’s 6-year-old accusers confidently presented her allegations in a meeting with him, a counselor and the parents of both girls. But Waunch said the other girl made no accusations in a separate session with the school officials and parents.

Waunch and counselor Katherine Hintyesz said the second girl’s mother encouraged her to repeat for the group allegations she reportedly made at home. But, Waunch and Hintyesz said, the girl told her mother, “No.”

“I took it to mean, no, it didn’t happen,” Waunch testified.

Hintyesz said the girl paused and had an angry look on her face, as though defying her mother.

A “prevention intervention specialist” for Educational Service District 101, Hintyesz is assigned to the Loon Lake Elementary School three days a week. She said Waunch prepared his questions in advance and she reviewed them to make sure they didn’t encourage the girls to answer in a certain way.

At the time of that meeting, shortly after the allegations surfaced, Hintyesz said school officials thought the complaint was just that Nesbitt improperly stopped his bus at an unscheduled location, separated the girls and touched one of them on the shoulder.

Prosecutor Jerry Wetle said he understands the girls were the first to board the bus and were alone with Nesbitt. But defense attorney Douglas Phelps said he will present testimony at trial that four other kindergartners regularly boarded the bus before the girls who are accusing Nesbitt.

“We don’t know what the route was at the time,” Wetle said, noting the route was changed several times.

“We do,” Waunch countered.

A jury will have to decide, Stevens County Superior Court Judge Larry Kristianson said.

He scheduled another hearing April 9 to determine whether the four kindergartners who may have boarded the bus before the alleged molestation victims are mature enough to testify. Kristianson ruled earlier this month that the two accusers are competent.

A competency hearing for numerous other kindergarten bus riders was averted when Wetle dropped one of three first-degree child molestation charges, involving a third alleged victim. Wetle said he was concerned about the girl’s ability to testify as well as the prospect of taking testimony from a busload of kindergartners.

In other business Tuesday, Kristianson ruled that the grandmother of one of the accusers may tell a jury about alleged abuses the girl revealed to her.

The grandmother told Kristianson the girl seemed upset while visiting her home and reluctantly told her that Nesbitt stopped his bus and made her leave her seat with the other alleged victim.

The grandmother said the girl told her she asked Nesbitt why he made her move, and he answered, “Because you don’t need to see what I’m going to do.”

The girl also said Nesbitt threatened to kill her parents if she told about the incident, the grandmother testified.

Later, when the girl’s teacher sent her to the school office with her lunch money, Nesbitt told her to come to him but she refused and he chased her a short distance, according to the grandmother’s secondhand account. The girl reportedly didn’t report the incident to her teacher because she was afraid.

In subsequent conversations, the grandmother testified, the girl offered more and more allegations against Nesbitt. The girl reportedly revealed first that the other alleged victim confided first that Nesbitt similarly chased her in the school and then that he had fondled her on the bus.

Still later, the grandmother said, her granddaughter reported Nesbitt fondled her as well.