Federal Way church daycare bus driver charged with molesting girl on bus

Published 6:45 pm Friday, June 27, 2014

A bus driver for a Federal Way church daycare was charged with molesting a 6-year-old girl on his bus.

Oscar Raul Lopez, 57, was charged with first-degree child molestation on Monday in King County Superior Court.

Lopez, a bus driver employed by Bethel Christian Church, is alleged to have inappropriately touched the girl when he was supposed to drive her from the church daycare to school, according to court documents.

The girl reported the alleged abuse to her mother the day after she said it occurred. During a forensic interview with the girl, she told detectives Lopez “was being inappropriate.”

She told police that in late May she was in the back of the bus where she always sits, waiting to go to school. She said she told Lopez she was ready to go and he went to the back of the bus and sat down next to her and touched her, the documents continue.

The girl said she told him to stop, which he did and then he told her he was sorry, according to charging documents.

The girl also told detectives that Lopez touched her inappropriately on five separate occasions while she was on the daycare bus and “would tell her that she was beautiful,” the documents continue.

Lopez denied inappropriate contact with the girl.

Church staff said Lopez has lived at and attended their church for seven years and has been employed by the church for the past five years. During that time, he has worked as a janitor, a daycare worker, groundskeeper and, for the past three years, a bus driver.

Lopez in being held in King County jail on $250,000 bail.