A former Greensburg Salem school bus driver will spend four to eight years in prison for engaging in sexual conversations via social media with an undercover agent posing as a 15-year-old girl.
Garris also attempted to set up a meeting in Cranberry in 2021, according to state Attorney General Michelle Henry.
Mark Garris, 47, of Derry, who was employed by DMJ Transportation of Mt. Pleasant Township, was sentenced Thursday by Butler County Judge Kelly Streib. A Butler County jury in March found Garris guilty of unlawful contact with a minor, attempted involuntary deviate sexual intercourse of a person less than 16 and criminal use of a communication device.
Garris will serve eight years on probation once released and must register for life as a sexual offender.
Greensburg Salem Superintendent Kenneth Bissell and a spokesman for DMJ Transportation could not be reached for comment Friday.
Garris was arrested by the attorney general’s agents when he drove to a pre-arranged meeting spot outside an office in Cranberry on Nov. 4, 2021, according to the attorney general. Special Agent Duane Tabak had set up the sting, which started in October 2021. Garris had sexual conversations and arranged to meet the child even after being told she was 15, the attorney general said.
The Attorney General’s Office did not have information on how long Garris had driven a Greensburg Salem school bus.
“This case serves as a reminder of the ways child predators use social media to gain access to victims. This defendant had every intention of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl,” Henry said in a statement.
