A civil lawsuit against a former Durham School Services bus driver now hinges on whether he was considered off the clock when he allegedly raped a 15-year-old student in a motel.
Durham School Services, the Illinois-based corporation that provides the majority of Hamilton County Schools buses, had no duty to monitor Alexander Rodriguez’s conduct on March 4, 2015, because it was “outside the scope of his employment,” company attorneys argued in a motion to dismiss a $10 million lawsuit.
“He had finished work, had returned his bus to its station, and was off duty at the time of the encounter with the minor child plaintiff, and took the minor plaintiff to a hotel in his own personal vehicle,” attorney Lauren Turner, who is representing Durham, its parent company National Express, and the Hamilton County Board of Education, wrote in an April 24 motion.
Rodriguez, 36, who pleaded guilty to aggravated statutory rape last summer and received four years’ probation, has been fighting this civil lawsuit since his victim’s legal guardians filed it in March 2016. They say Durham is negligent for hiring a man with a prior criminal history, and that Hamilton County can’t wipe its hands clean by simply contracting with a transportation group.
“It’s absurd to think, when a child is entrusted to one of these bus drivers, that the defendants could wipe their hands clean of any responsibility just because the work day ends,” plaintiffs’ attorney Catherine White said Tuesday. “Our position is, the duty to protect that child attaches the minute that child comes into the physical custody of the bus driver, and regardless of what the work hours are, remains attached until the bus driver relinquishes custody.”