Pedophile School Bus Driver Escapes Jail After Admitting to Raping Child
Judge gives no prison time to Shane Piche who admitted he raped 14-year-old schoolgirl
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A pedophile school bus driver, who admitted to raping a 14-year-old child, has been spared jail by a judge, according to reports.
Former Watertown City School District bus driver Shane Piche admitted to raping to the schoolgirl who was a passenger on his route.
Piche, of Watertown, New York, confessed to the crime in February as part of a plea deal and was sentenced in Jefferson County Court last week.
The victim's mother said her daughter has forced "to struggle with depression and anxiety" since she was attacked by the 26-year-old and had hoped he would have been jailed for his crimes.
Shane M. Piche was sentenced to 10 years’ probation by Judge James P. McClusky and will be registered as a Level 1 sex offender as a result of his guilty plea Feb. 21 to third-degree rape.
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According to the Waterdown Daily Times, while the district attorney’s office had requested a Level 2 designation, Judge McClusky said because Piche had no prior arrests and there was only one victim in this plea, Level 1 was more appropriate.
A Level 1 sex offender is considered to be at low risk of committing the crime again and is not included in online sex offender databases.
According to the state police, Piche met the girl through his job as a bus driver, but the incident happened at his Ridge Road residence.
He had also been charged with first-degree unlawfully dealing with a child and endangering the welfare of a child after allegedly providing the youth with alcohol.
Piche’s attorney, Eric T. Swartz, said he feels good about the sentence and confirmed that Piche no longer works at the bus company as a result of the incident.
Three “no contact” protection orders were issued against Piche and he is not allowed to be alone with anyone under 17 years old, although there were some exceptions approved.
He is also required to pay $375 in court fees and surcharges and a $1,000 special sex offender registration fee.
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“He’ll be a felon for the rest of his life. He’s on the sex offender registry for a long time, maybe not the rest of his life because of the level,” Piche’s defense attorney Eric Swartz told WWNY-TV.
"But this isn’t something that didn’t cause him pain and this isn’t something that didn’t have consequences."
In a statement to WWNY-TV, the victim’s mother said, “I wish Shane Piche would have received time in jail for the harm he caused to my child.
"He took something from my daughter she will never get back and has caused her to struggle with depression and anxiety.”
