Former Medina bus driver sentenced to jail on child endangering charges
A former Medina City Schools bus driver accused of transporting students while drunk has been sentenced to about nine months in jail on six counts of child endangering, according to Medina Municipal Court records.
Herbert Ferguson of Westfield Center in Medina County was relieved of his duties on bus route 30 and fired on Nov. 15, immediately after he failed a random alcohol test conducted after his morning run, the school district said in December.
The district said that during an ongoing internal investigation and in collaboration with Medina police, it was determined Ferguson was "consuming alcohol and met the legal definition of intoxication while transporting students."
Ferguson pleaded no contest and was found guilty by Medina Municipal Court Judge Gary Werner of six counts of child endangering, all first-degree misdemeanors. He was fined $500 for each count, for a total of $3,000, and has 12 months to pay the fine.
In exchange for Ferguson's plea, the state agreed not to file additional child endangering charges for each child who was on the bus Ferguson drove, per a pretrial agreement.
A first-degree misdemeanor charge of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, which the court noted was Ferguson's first OVI offense, was dismissed because the court suppressed the results of the random alcohol test the school district performed in November.
The instrument used during the test is not approved by the Ohio Department of Health for testing breath for blood alcohol content, so the court ruled the results of the test inadmissible.
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Ferguson was sentenced Tuesday to 180 days in jail on the first three child endangering counts, to run consecutively, and no time on the last three counts. Of the 540 total days to which he was sentenced, 270 were suspended. He's required to serve 270 days in jail, and the sentence started Tuesday.
Ferguson will also be on probation for five years. He'll be required to pay a $490 probation services fee, not possess or consume alcohol, submit to chemical testing at the request of police or probation officers and attend counseling, among other requirements.
He'll be on 90 days of SCRAM continuous alcohol monitoring after his release from jail (the SCRAM Continuous Alcohol Monitoring bracelet provides 24/7 transdermal alcohol testing by automatically sampling the wearer’s perspiration every 30 minutes).
Ferguson will also have his driver's license suspended but will have limited driving privileges with an ignition interlock device (an in-car breathalyzer that prevents users from starting their car if they've consumed alcohol). He'll be required to pay all fines and costs and show proof of insurance before being granted the limited driving privileges.
Contact Beacon Journal reporter Emily Mills at emills@thebeaconjournal.com and on Twitter @EmilyMills818.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Former Medina bus driver sentenced to jail on child endangering charges
