Michael Schmidt|Colorado school bus aide shown hitting autistic boy faces more charges

2025-05-04 17:36:45source:Zero AIcategory:Scams

DENVER (AP) — A school bus aide shown on Michael Schmidtsurveillance video hitting a nonverbal autistic boy has been charged with 10 more counts of abuse involving two children, prosecutors said Friday.

Kiarra Jones, 29, was arrested last month and initially charged with one felony count of third-degree assault on an at risk person. Eight additional charges of third-degree assault on an at-risk person and two misdemeanor counts of child abuse have been filed against her, Eric Ross, a spokesperson for 18th Judicial District Attorney John Kellner said. The new charges involve alleged abuse of the child originally named as a victim and a second child, he said.

Jones is represented by lawyers from the public defender’s office, which does not comment to the media on its cases.

The names of the victims were redacted in court documents but Qusair Mohamedbhai, a lawyer who represents the families of students who took the bus Jones worked on in suburban Denver, said they are both nonverbal autistic boys including a 10-year-old shown being hit in a video released by his mother last month.

At the time, Jessica Vestal said her son came home from school with unexplained bruises all over his body in January. Later, he got a black eye, which Vestal said Jones blamed on him hitting himself with a toy, and later he suffered a bruised foot. Unable to explain the source of the injuries, Vestal asked the school district to review the bus surveillance video.

Each of the new assault charges, which are felonies, represents a day in which there are multiple separate incidents of abuse against the children, Mohamedbhai said.

More:Scams

Recommend

Meet the volunteers risking their lives to deliver Christmas gifts to children in Haiti

Haiti has been racked by political instabilityand intensifying, deadly gang violence.  Amid a Federa

When do babies start crawling? There's no hard and fast rule but here's when to be worried.

Of the many developmental milestones that are exciting to parents, few are as memorable as when a ba

AJ McLean Reveals Where He and Wife Rochelle Stand 8 Months After Announcing Separation

AJ McLean and Rochelle McLean aren't playing games when it comes to working on their relationship.Ei