A bus driver pleaded guilty Thursday to sexually assaulting three of his mentally disabled passengers and was sentenced to nearly a year in jail, or time already served, and was placed on five years of formal probation.
Jon Francis Farris, 57, pleaded guilty to forcible oral copulation and oral copulation of an incompetent person, both felonies, and touching an intimate part of another person, a misdemeanor, according to court records.
Farris was a contract driver for Western Transit Systems Inc., assigned to a route for disabled clients from the Regional Center of Orange County.
The 6-foot-4, 230-pound defendant dropped off one client in Tustin on March 23 last year and then parked the bus nearby, where he sexually assaulted three other women passengers, according to the District Attorney’s Office. A witness who saw the bus parked for several minutes grew concerned and checked on the vehicle, then called the bus company, which notified police, prosecutors said.
Each of the victims has the mental capacity of a child, according to Tustin police Lt. John Strain.
Farris, who was arrested April 26 of last year, could have faced up to 11 years in prison if convicted at trial.