A former school bus driver in Rochester, New York, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of attempting to receive child pornography. U.S. District Judge Frank P. Geraci handed down the sentence to Tomas Rosario, 76, who will also face seven years of supervised release.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Meghan K. McGuire, Rosario was employed as a school bus driver in Monroe County when the incidents occurred. On March 11, 2022, Rosario transported a 13-year-old student to school without any other adults or children present on the bus. During the ride, he allowed the victim to sit in the front seat and engaged her in personal and sexually explicit conversation, including asking if she had ever engaged in sexual conduct with her boyfriend.
At the end of that day, Rosario again picked up the victim and continued with sexually explicit conversations before subjecting her to instances of sexual contact. He provided his phone number to the victim, showed her his home, and encouraged her to call or visit if she wanted to skip school. The bus surveillance system recorded these actions.
In one incident during that time period, Rosario instructed the victim to take sexually explicit photos of herself and send them to him. The following day at a convenience store, he warned her not to disclose what had happened; this encounter was captured by store security cameras.
The case resulted from an investigation conducted by the Rochester Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Child Exploitation Human Trafficking Task Force.
U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced the sentencing.
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