Former PSD bus attendant pleads guilty in pending agreement: Here's what comes next

A former Poudre School District bus attendant agreed to plead guilty to seven felony counts of assault against an at-risk individual as well as four misdemeanor charges in Larimer County District Court on Monday.

Tyler Zanella, 37, entered the tentative guilty pleas, with the charges each representing one of the 11 named victims in the case, for his conduct last spring while working on school buses transporting children with special needs. He did so as part of an agreement with prosecutors to avoid a trial.

The agreement is only tentative at this point, 8th Judicial District Judge Daniel McDonald said, pending his review of a presentence investigation and evaluation of the defendant’s suitability for serving a prison term in community corrections vs. state prison. A sentencing hearing was set for April 12 in his courtroom at the Larimer County Justice Center, at which time the judge will either approve the deal and impose a sentence or reject the agreement and schedule a trial.

Zanella entered separate guilty pleas to seven of the 27 counts of assault in the third degree against an at-risk individual, a Class 6 felony, that he was facing in this case and two counts apiece of harassment and child abuse that knowingly or recklessly causes bodily injury, both Class 1 misdemeanors.

The felony charges are each punishable by 12-18 months in prison plus a fine of up to $100,000, McDonald said. The misdemeanor charges are each punishable by prison terms up to 364 days and a fine of up to $1,000. The judge will have the ability during sentencing to determine whether those sentences will be served concurrently or consecutively.

Zanella was facing a total of 164 charges brought forward by the district attorney’s office following an investigation by Fort Collins police, who reviewed school bus surveillance video. Police said the video shows Zanella striking the children, all autistic and most of them nonverbal, with his hand, cellphones and/or backpacks, while also taunting them verbally. Some of the children were in five-point harnesses that restrict their movement because of their specific disabilities, police said.

“I think the plea agreement is self-explanatory,” Zanella’s attorney, Andy Gavaldon, said outside the courtroom. “He’s taken responsibility for 11 of the at-risk children; those are the 11 victims in this case. He’s taken full responsibility by entering these pleas. This is a sincere effort on his part to resolve this. He wants the healing to start now.”

Laura Hinojos, the chief deputy district attorney prosecuting the case, told the judge that some victims’ families were in favor of the plea agreement while others were not. Families of the victims were not involved in discussions about the plea agreement, parents said, and only learned about it when it was first presented to Zanella and his attorney in November. Gavaldon asked the court for additional time to review the deal during a hearing last month, and the hearing was postponed until Monday for that reason, McDonald said at the time.

Five parents of victims spoke during the hearing, four in person and one through a livestream link. Three, representing four victims, were in favor of the plea agreement and two, representing the same victim, were opposed.

McDonald said victims and their families will have a chance to speak again at the sentencing hearing if he chooses to accept the plea agreement. If the agreement is rejected, Zanella will be allowed to withdraw the guilty pleas he entered Monday.

The three parents who spoke in favor of accepting the plea agreement generally expressed concern about their children having to relive the trauma by possibly having to testify in a trial.

“In everyone’s best interest, I don’t believe that going to trial is good because of our need to move on and heal, but I would encourage you to take into account how horrific what he did to our children is,” one of the parents said.

Said another: “There will never be justice. There will never be anything that can be done that will take away what happened. I feel that going to trial is not in the best interest of these kids. … What I will ask of you, Judge McDonald, is that you give him the maximum sentence that you possibly can.”

Another, speaking against the agreement, said, “I want to emphasize that everyone who’s seen this footage has used descriptors of evil and demonic. We can’t have people like that hurting other people.”

That parent went on to express concern that other children witnessed these incidents.

“Neurotypical kids saw someone abusing several disabled children and they think it’s OK,” the parent said. “They need to be shown that it’s not; that it’s not OK. That you don’t just get slapped on the back of the hand for doing that.”

That victim’s other parent told the court that her review of the goals of a criminal sentence under Colorado law “include rehabilitation, punishment for the offender, healing for victims and the community and to deter others from committing similar offenses.

“Assuming it’s even possible to rehabilitate a 37-year-old man who thinks it’s appropriate to abuse disabled children in his care, it’s going to take a lot to turn that level of twisted morality around,” she said. “There are three-plus months of actions to punish, the victims have to heal from physical and emotional abuse, and the community will take a long time to regain trust in Poudre School District after their choice to hire him and ignore complaints against him.

“I don’t think this plea deal is capable of doing any of that, even if you choose to impose maximum consecutive sentences. Too many charges have been removed.”

Zanella had been out on bond awaiting trial but was taken into custody Jan. 12 for violating terms of his bond agreement and remained in custody as of Monday's hearing.

All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in court. Arrests and charges are merely accusations by law enforcement until, and unless, a suspect is convicted of a crime.

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, twitter.com/KellyLyell or facebook.com/KellyLyell.news. 

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Judge considering plea deal in former PSD bus attendant's assault case