Report: School bus driver texted escort before fatal wreck
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. --A Tennessee school bus driver was texting with a prostitute moments before a fatal 2014 crash that killed two students and a teacher's aide, reports the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
The details of the moments leading up to the crash were detailed after a six-month investigation involving state, local and federal agencies,reports the paper, which obtained documents through a public records request.
James Davenport, 48, was reportedly in the midst of a text exchange with a woman named "Lacey" when he swerved across a median and struck a second bus on a highway in Knoxville. The woman's same cell number appears in an online advertisement for an alleged Knoxville escort, reports the paper.
Lacey Victoria Easterly, 25, was being held without bond this week on charges of prostitution and failure to appear in court on an earlier drug paraphernalia charge, reports the paper.
She's reportedly been convicted of prostitution three times within the past nine months, according to the paper.
The students killed were 6 and 7, and the teacher's aide was 46.
CBS affiliate WVLT reported that parents reported to police a year before the fatal wreck that Davenport would allegedly speed and talk and text on the phone while driving.
Davenport was found dead June 1 at his mother's home, and his death was attributed to natural causes, reports the paper.