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After Davis, 52, pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charges, he received a suspended sentence of 10 months in jail for each of the three offenses as part of a plea agreement reached in Franklin County Circuit Court.

Davis, who did not testify, served about two weeks in jail before he was released on bond following his arrest last December.

The girls — who were 13, 14 and 15 years old at the time — told authorities that Davis made inappropriate comments and touched their breasts and buttocks over clothing as they waited on the bus when it was parked at schools.

“Mr. Davis denied touching the girls on any private area, but acknowledged touching the girls in order to remove lint or a speck from their clothing,� read a statement of facts introduced during the hearing.

Videos from the school bus surveillance camera were available only for the last four weeks of a period between Aug. 23, 2023, and Nov. 19, 2024, when the abuse was alleged to have occurred.

“Although there are multiple instances of the defendant tugging on students’ backpacks, hands, phones or clothing, there was no overtly criminal behavior in that video,� according to the statement of facts.

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Sara Jamison said that while the victims all maintained that they were sexually assaulted, the parents of all but one did not want them to be forced to testify had the case gone to trial.

“This was what we thought was the best way to achieve justice for these girls,� Jamison said of the plea agreement.

Two felony charges of taking indecent liberties with a minor as a custodian were reduced to misdemeanor sexual battery. A third felony of aggravated sexual battery involving a fourth victim was dropped as part of the agreement.

In addition to accusing Davis of sexual assault, the girls said he made inappropriate comments about their appearance, called them his girlfriends and said he loved them.

Franklin County school officials declined to comment Wednesday on the status of Davis’s employment, saying they could not talk about personnel matters. However, the statement of facts said Davis was employed as a bus driver “until his arrest.�

And the plea agreement, under which Davis was placed on probation for one year and ordered to be of good behavior for two years, forbids him from having any unsupervised contact with minors and from holding any job that involves working with juveniles.

The agreement did not call for an active jail sentence but left the amount of suspended time and other terms to be decided by Circuit Judge Tim Allen.

At the beginning of Wednesday’s hearing, defense attorney Carolyn Furrow asked that the proceeding be closed to the public. After The Â鶹´«Ã½¹ÙÍø objected, Allen allowed the newspaper to remain, under the condition that the victims were not identified.