Former OC School Bus Driver Sentenced For Sexual Assault On 2 Girls

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — A former school bus driver in Orange County was sentenced Wednesday to 95 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting two young girls he lived with, court records show.

Nery Rodriguez Gonzalez, 43, was convicted Sept. 18 of one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child and single counts each of lewd or lascivious acts with a minor younger than 14, aggravated sexual assault of a child younger than 14, aggravated sexual assault of a child with a foreign object and lewd or lascivious acts with a minor, all felonies.

Gonzalez's pattern of sexual assault started with the two young girls when they were about 6 and 8 years old.

The former school bus driver worked in Santa Ana under the Santa Ana Unified School District. He was not charged with molesting any students.

Police were called to Children's Hospital in Orange County on Dec. 30, 2020, when one of the victims told her mother the defendant had sexually abused her since she was 8 until she was 13, police testified during a preliminary hearing. The molestation occurred in Santa Ana and Garden Grove, police testified.

One night while spending the night at the defendant's home with three siblings, one of the victims woke up to seeing Gonzalez having sex with another victim, police testified. That victim reported he had molested her starting when she was 6 or 7 until she was 13, police testified.

City News Service contributed to this report.