A former Melissa ISD school bus driver is back behind bars after being arrested for the second time in a week, this time facing multiple child sex crime charges that go well beyond the pornography possession charge that first got him fired. Phillip Marcus Bates was taken into custody by the Collin County Sheriff's Office on Friday, October 16, just three days after an earlier arrest by McKinney police.
The Collin County Sheriff's Office booked Bates on charges of child pornography possession, sexual performance by a child and sexual abuse of a child with disabilities, according to fox4news.com. His bond was set at $200,000, and he remained in the Collin County Jail as of that report. The new charges followed his initial arrest by the McKinney Police Department on Tuesday, October 13, which was limited to a single child pornography possession charge.
Fired as Soon as District Learned of First Arrest
Bates worked as a transportation employee for Melissa ISD, where he drove Route 15, the same report notes. District officials said he was fired as soon as administrators learned of the October 13 arrest, and that he had no further contact with students once the district became aware of the charge.
As reported by CBS News Texas, the district confirmed Bates no longer works for Melissa ISD. His second arrest, on the broader set of charges, came just days after he was let go, underscoring how quickly the case escalated from a single pornography possession allegation to a wider set of accusations involving sexual performance by a child and sexual abuse of a child with disabilities.
District Says No Known Link to Students
Melissa ISD officials said they currently have no information indicating a connection between the matter and district students. The district said in a statement that it is reviewing relevant information and is in close communication with local law enforcement regarding the situation.
Neither of the fox4news.com reports detailing the charges spells out the specific circumstances behind the allegations, and no court filings or warrant details have been made public in the reporting reviewed for this story. It also remains unclear whether Bates was still in custody beyond the initial report of his second arrest.
