Las Vegas, NV (AP) – Clark County School District trustees have approved a $9 million settlement in a case involving a former school bus driver who was sent to prison in 2018 for sexually assaulting special education preschoolers.
The action followed the dismissal in November of a federal lawsuit involving the parents of a girl and a boy who were 3 and 4 years old when Michael Ray Banco was arrested in 2015.
Documents filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas say the funds will be deposited in a trust account for the children.
Banco faced 41 felony charges before he pleaded guilty to sexual assault with a minor under 16 and lewdness with a child under 14. He’s now 62 and is serving 35 years to life in prison.
Police and prosecutors said Banco, a longtime school bus driver, sexually assaulted children in the back of his bus before dropping them off at their home. Acts were captured on bus surveillance video.
A district spokesman said this week that insurance will pay two-thirds of the settlement, leaving the district to pay $3 million.