Ex-school bus driver's child stalking trial delayed. Is plea deal possible?

GREENLAND — The jury trial date in the case of ex-school bus driver Michael Chick has been postponed until mid-April, though court documents indicate a plea agreement is under consideration.

After pleading not guilty to charges he stalked and threatened an 8-year-old Greenland child on his former bus route, Chick, an Eliot, Maine resident, was initially scheduled to stand trial in early November. Chick’s trial was then moved to January and later moved to March before being pushed off to mid-April.

Dated March 1, court records show Chick’s federal public defender, Behzad Mirhashem requested the trial be moved again for an additional 30 days. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kasey Weiland, the prosecutor in the case, agreed to the motion.

“While the parties have made steady progress towards either settling this case or proceeding to trial, defense counsel needs another continuance in this matter in order to advise Mr. Chick properly,” reads the motion.

Mirhashem declined to comment for this story.

U.S. District of New Hampshire Chief Judge Landya McCafferty is set to preside over Chick’s trial. McCafferty recently approved the new trial start date of April 18 at 9:30 a.m. in Concord.

A pretrial conference between the parties and McCafferty is scheduled April 4.

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The charges against Michael Chick

Authorities arrested Chick, who had bus routes in Greenland and Rye, in early August after a warranted search of his residence took place. Charged with federal interstate stalking, Chick was then denied bail and in September was indicted by a federal grand jury for a single charge of cyberstalking.

According to court documents, in April 2022, the parents of the Greenland child became suspicious of Chick and first reported him to the Greenland school district and town police.

Chick allegedly gave the child and his sister gifts on the bus on numerous occasions, which included candy, Pokémon paraphernalia, and other small toys, according to a police affidavit.

After the town’s school administration contacted First Student, which employed Chick as a bus driver and reassigned him to a different bus route, Greenland police told Chick last May that he could no longer contact the boy or his family.

Despite being assigned a new bus route, Chick persisted and kept in touch with the child, authorities allege. The child’s family reported Chick to police twice last spring and again last July after locating two TracFones inside the child’s lunchbox, per court records. Authorities were told by the parents the child told them the devices were gifts from Chick.

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Chick allegedly gave the child multiple TracFones and instructed him to take inappropriate photographs of himself. The former bus driver is also accused of placing GPS tracking devices on the child’s parents’ vehicles to track whether they reported him to police and of making several visits to the family's home at night.

Chick is accused of following the child and his family around Greenland and nearby communities, taking "surreptitious photographs and videos" in "public places, including retail stores and a water park.” The bus driver also made up a story about a group of criminals called “The Team” to threaten the child, allegedly saying the group would kidnap and torture the child if he didn’t comply with the instructions to photograph and take videos of himself.

The child told authorities he was told “The Team” would kill his family if he didn’t comply.

“The Team,” the child later told his parents, was a group of anywhere between eight and 800 people Chick claimed existed, the affidavit states.

The child’s parents “were very concerned for their son’s safety as well as their own, verbalizing that they were afraid that Chick would come to their home and kidnap” the child, court documents state.

Chick later admitted to investigators that he threatened the child on the bus and gave him three separate TracFones, according to court documents. Authorities searched his car and found his cell phone, a TracFone, a digital camera, duct tape, rubber gloves, candy, children’s undergarments and toys, and a magnetic GPS vehicle tracker.

Authorities reported finding surveillance cameras, TracFones, large plastic bags of children’s underwear and more evidence at Chick’s residence.

Chick’s case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Greenland Police Department.

Homeland Security Investigations created a hotline for anyone with information about the investigation into the former bus driver. The number is (603) 722-1751.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Ex-school bus driver Michael Chick trial delayed. Plea deal in talks.