BOSTON — A Suffolk County grand jury on Wednesday returned three indictments against a former Boston school bus driver in the April 2025 death of 5-year-old Lens Arthur Joseph, the district attorney said.
The jury indicted Jean Charles, 39, of Brockton, on charges of involuntary manslaughter, reckless motor vehicular homicide and negligent motor vehicle homicide, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement.
The boy was hit and killed in Hyde Park by the school bus that had just dropped him off from school on April 28, 2025.
Charles is expected to be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court later this month.
“This was a careful and thorough investigation incorporating all available evidence, including surveillance footage from the bus camera and testimony from eyewitnesses. The grand jurors gave full deliberation to the evidence presented to them and determined that Jean Charles must answer for the tragic death of Lens Joseph,” Hayden said.
Charles was responsible for driving Lens, a kindergartner at Up Academy in Dorchester, and Lens’s older cousin home from school.
On April 28, 2025, Charles missed the proper bus stop for the two children, which would have dropped them on the same side of the street as their home, prosecutors said.
As Lens made his way in front of the bus on Washington Street, prosecutors said Charles failed to perform the necessary safety protocols as required to ensure that Lens crossed safely to his home, Hayden said.
Waiting only a few seconds, and without accounting for Lens’s whereabouts, Charles drove away and immediately ran over the child, causing his death, prosecutors said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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