Bus driver for Grafton schools arrested for alleged kidnapping, endangerment

Crime

The driver allegedly disconnected and obscured devices that recorded video, audio, and GPS information of his routes.

A school bus driver in Grafton is facing several charges, including multiple counts of kidnapping children, after he allegedly disabled bus cameras and deviated from his assigned routes.

Redi Gace, 54, of Worcester, was arraigned Wednesday in Westborough District Court on two counts of kidnapping a child, one count of reckless endangerment of a child, one count of felony intimidation, and one count of withholding evidence, according to court records. He pleaded not guilty and was ordered held on $50,000 bail.

Gace worked for AA Transportation, a charter bus company which provided service to Grafton Public Schools, court documents said. The Grafton Police Department was contacted by the company Dec. 23 about a complaint that a parent had made to the school district.

The parent reported that, the day before, their child arrived home about half an hour later than their “assigned scheduled drop off time,” according to a statement of facts from police filed in court. When the company reviewed the bus’ video, audio, and GPS data, they identified Gace as the driver.

During their investigation, the bus company found that the interior camera was not functioning and that the front-facing camera was covered, police reported. Only one exterior camera was “functional and recording” at the time, the statement of facts said.

GPS data and video from Dec. 22 indicated that there was one child on the bus at the time, a 5-year-old non-verbal boy, police wrote. While Gace was supposed to be driving the child home from school, he allegedly deviated from the assigned route and made an unauthorized stop.

After Gace stopped, the child could be heard crying on bus audio for about 10 minutes before the bus camera turned off, a result of the bus itself being turned off, according to the statement of facts. The video resumed 17 minutes later and showed Gace driving the boy home, police wrote.

Gace dropped the boy off approximately 29 minutes late, according to the statement. Authorities determined that he purposefully confined the boy, identified in records as “Victim #1,”  without lawful authority and “for no explained or legitimate reason.”

Additional footage from Dec. 4 depicted Gace accessing a compartment within the bus, appearing to deactivate an interior video camera, court records showed. This prompted authorities to believe that he intentionally disconnected the camera to prevent “any digital documentation of the events that would transpire on that bus in the days following.”

In another instance Dec. 18, bus audio indicated that Gace took an unauthorized route while driving a 3-year-old girl home, stopped in the same place as the Dec. 22 incident, and turned the bus off. The girl, identified as “Victim #2,” could be heard saying four minutes later that she wanted to go home, at which point the bus was started up again and Gace drove away.

The girl was dropped off six minutes late from the assigned time, again with “no valid explanation” of why Gace deviated from the route, police wrote in the statement of facts. The bus company was later able to verify that the bus GPS system had been disconnected between Dec. 8 and Dec. 18.

Gace admitted during a Dec. 23 police interview that he lied to the parent of one of the students and told them that he was late because of another student who was supposedly late being picked up. He further claimed that he had not driven on the road that he stopped on in two years when video evidence proved the contrary, records showed.

During the interview, Gace also lied to investigators about why he stopped, claiming that he did so to return a call to his attorney in Albania, according to court filings. Not only did the time difference between countries mean that this would have been outside of the attorney’s work hours, but there was also no record of the call during the time that he alleged he placed it, police wrote.

If Gace makes bail and is released, he will be prohibited from having contact with anyone under 16 and placed on house arrest with GPS monitoring, court records show.

Grafton police announced Gace’s arrest Wednesday but did not identify him by name in their statement. However, they confirmed that the investigation is still in progress and that “additional charges may be forthcoming.”

“At this time, we are working closely with Grafton School District and AA Transportation to ensure the safety of all students,” police said in the statement. “The suspect is no longer employed by AA Transportation. The suspect was not assigned to general student transportation routes.”

Since the investigation, the Grafton School District has contacted the families of “all students who may have had contact with the suspect,” according to police. Anyone with information about the investigation or concerns about their child is urged to contact Detective Sergeant Daniel Wenc at 508-839-2858.

Gace’s attorney in Worcester could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.