Bus Driver Gets Life Sentences in Attack

A Saugus man who worked as a bus driver has agreed to serve two life sentences for kidnapping an 11-year-old passenger and then trying to molest and kill him, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said Thursday.

Michael White, 32, pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of attempted murder and kidnapping with intent to commit a felony, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Mary Hanlon Stone.

She credited the boy’s maturity and courage as the reason why White agreed to such a long term in order to avoid trial.

“At the preliminary hearing, the child witness was an amazing witness,” Stone said. “He was so clear and accurate and brave. I think the defendant realized there was no way he could win this case.”

White, who was driving a Dial-A-Ride bus, picked up the boy at a bus stop in Santa Clarita on Jan. 8, Stone said. The boy had just gotten out of school and was going to meet his mother.

But the bus, which was empty except for the boy and the driver, deviated from the usual route and headed about seven miles out to a remote area near Val Verde, Stone said. The bus driver explained to the boy that he needed to take a rest stop.

With the bus parked at the side of the road, White walked to the the back of the bus where the boy sat.

“He told the boy that he was going to ‘do it’ with him. The boy said ‘no’ and fought back heroically,” Stone said. The boy struggled and resisted so much that the defendant never succeeded in his attempt to molest him, she added.

Angered, White tried to strangle the boy, Stone said. The boy fainted and White thought he had died. When the boy revived some minutes later, White tried to strangle him again, and when he believed the boy was dead, he rolled the boy down a hill, Stone said.

Incredibly, the boy revived. “He had a very strong survival instinct,” Stone said.

The boy walked to the side of the road and flagged down a passing car, Stone said. He told authorities what happened.

White will be sentenced Dec. 23.