Judge sentences school bus driver to ten years in prison

PORT WASHINGTON -- An Ozaukee County judge sentenced Randy Mayer on Monday afternoon, July 9th to 10 years in prison and 10 more years of extended supervision. Mayer is the long-time Port Washington school bus driver found guilty of four counts of sexual assault of a child.

Back in May, after two-and-a-half days of testimony, the jury took less than an hour to reach a verdict against Mayer. He was convicted of four counts of molesting three boys on his school bus route in 2011.

The criminal complaint said Mayer made the boys sit on a plastic bin on top of the engine cover next to the driver’s seat of his bus. Then Mayer touched their private areas.

Mayer told the jury misbehaving students on his routes would sit near his seat so he could talk to them, but he denied touching the boys in the groin area.

During Mayer's sentencing hearing, Judge Sandy Williams said by insisting he did not commit a crime, Mayer left her no choice but to sentence Mayer to prison. The judge said Mayer would get credit for time served, but not for living a life marked by good character, because she said the harm he has done outweighs the good.

Mayer worked for Johnson School Bus Company, and has apparently been a trusted school bus driver for 35 years.

"This has shown, by protecting them from that stranger-danger, good touch or bad touch, that they're not always included to come to us -- that we have to go to them, as their parents and as their protectors," a victim's parent said Monday.

A mother of one of the victims also drove a school bus for the same company and reported concerns about Mayer in October. Mayer was fired immediately and in December he was criminally charged.

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