NORTHAMPTON — A trial date of Feb. 26, 2018, has been set for Tendzin Parsons, a Hawley bus driver charged in the death of a 9-year-old Plainfield girl.
Summer Steele, a student at Sanderson Academy in Ashfield, died Oct. 28, 2016, after her backpack got caught in the door of the bus while she was climbing off the front and she was run over, according to police reports.
A pretrial hearing for Parsons, 70, is scheduled for Dec. 1. Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Andrew Covington said a judge will be assigned to the case by that time.
Covington said he expects February’s trial to be about four to five days long.
Parsons was first arraigned on the charge of negligent motor vehicle on May 12 and released on conditions that he not drive, and that he surrender his passport and not leave the commonwealth without permission of the probation department, according to a statement from the district attorney’s office.
Parsons and the district attorney’s office reached a plea agreement over the summer under which he would plead guilty to the charge. But, in a September court appearance, Parsons decided not to go forward with the deal after Judge Michael Goggins told him that he would not accept probation and a suspended sentence as punishment, and instead would impose a one-year jail sentence.
Caitlin Ashworth can be reached at cashworth@gazettenet.com.