SPRINGFIELD — The trial for a man accused of causing a deadly school bus crash in Clark County last year started Monday.
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Hermanio Joseph, 36, is facing charges of involuntary manslaughter and vehicular homicide for the crash involving a Northwestern Local Schools on the district’s first day of school August 22. The crash killed an 11-year-old student, Aiden Clark, and injured over two dozen others.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, jury selection was completed around midday Monday. Opening statements from both the prosecution and defense will start Tuesday morning.
Joseph is accused of not having a valid driver’s license at the time of the crash. His lawyers filed a motion to have his charges thrown out earlier this year saying he in fact had a valid license issued in Mexico where he lived before arriving in the United States. However, the motion was later declined weeks later by Judge Douglas Rastatter.
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Over the last eight months, there has been a lot of emotion around the crash Joseph is accused of causing.
Dozens of speakers had expressed their concerns inside Springfield’s City Commission chambers about Haitian drivers since Clark’s death.
The comments at city meetings prompted Clark’s parents to send a letter to the then-assistant mayor, Rob Rue, the family’s funeral director, to read publicly at a meeting in October.
“Please do not mix up the values of our family with the uninformed majority that vocalize their hate. Aiden embraced other cultures and would insist you do the same,” Rue read from a letter from the Clark family.
We’ll continue to provide updates from the courtroom through the week and this story will be updated with developments as they happen.
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