Bus driver accused of stalking boy, 8, sentenced to nine years in prison

CONCORD, N.H. — A former school bus driver who stalked and threatened an 8-year-old boy in New Hampshire was sentenced Thursday to nine years in prison.

Michael Chick of Eliot, Maine, who pleaded guilty in federal court last month to one count of cyberstalking, also was sentenced to three years of supervised release.

Chick worked as a bus driver for First Student, a contractor, driving routes in the southeastern New Hampshire towns of Greenland and Rye. He was arrested in 2022.

Prosecutors alleged he gave a Greenland Central School student cellphones with instructions to take inappropriate photos of himself, placed tracking devices on his parents’ vehicles and made multiple late-night visits to their home, court documents show.

The boy said Chick used a story about a group of criminals he called “The Team” who would kill, kidnap and torture his family if he didn’t comply.

The boy’s parents reported what they perceived as Chick’s obsession with their son. Chick was assigned to different bus routes but continued to contact the boy, according to court documents. The family reported him again to police after finding two cellphones in a lunchbox in the boy’s room.

“Michael Chick’s crimes caused unimaginable pain and fear for the survivor and his family. It is only because of their courage and dedication that the defendants’ crimes have been exposed,” U.S. Attorney Jane Young said in a statement. “While Michael Chick’s incarceration will not erase the trauma he inflicted, it will hopefully provide some measure of justice for the survivor and his family.”

A judge had previously rejected a plea deal that included a six-year prison sentence because it was not long enough.