Bus driver says caffeine made him grope girls

A school bus driver in Seattle who was convicted of assault for groping teens and women claims an excessive intake of caffeine drove him to the acts. Kenneth Sands, 51, tried to explain himself at his sentencing on Tuesday. Sands, a driver for the Rainier School District, has been convicted of molesting three high school volleyball players and two women during a volleyball game in Onalaska on Oct. 18.



According to the Lewis County sheriff's office, Sands was at the game as a spectator and was not the bus driver. During the game, he allegedly touched a 46-year-old woman's breasts three different times and later grabbed her butt as she was trying to get away from him. After the game, he grabbed a 15-year-old girl's butt outside of the bus and slapped a 16-year-old girl's butt as she was getting onto the bus, according to the sheriff's office.

Once on the bus, Sands allegedly touched another player in an inappropriate manner before the bus driver kicked him out, according to the sheriff's office. Sands said it was caffeine that had driven him to act out of character. "That caused a psychotic episode," he told the court. "My son-in-law and daughter had never seen that kind of behaviour from myself."


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Sands' words did little to calm the angry mother of one of his victims. In court, the woman read a letter her daughter had written. "Ken left me with nightmares that would leave me sleepless for nights, afraid to fall asleep. I've had dreams of him hurting me and my family in violent ways over and over again," the letter said. Sands was sentenced to 30 days for each of the five counts of fourth-degree assault.