Sex offender accused of sneaking onto school bus during kindergarten field trip
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A 62-year-old registered sex offender has been charged with stalking after he allegedly snuck onto a school bus in Minneapolis and rode with a class of kindergarteners on their way back from a field trip in 2019.
In December, Michael Charles Friedrichs was sentenced to a year in jail for violating his predatory offender status in connection to the incident.
Charges filed Thursday in Hennepin County District Court state on February 28, 2019 surveillance video captured Friedrichs getting onto an empty school bus that was parked on Nicollet Avenue South in Minneapolis. After closing the bus doors behind him, he pressed his groin area into multiple seat cushions. He hid in the back of the bus when the bus driver got on.
The bus picked up a class of kindergartners along with their teachers and chaperones from a field trip at the Walker Art Center. After the bus left, Friedrichs started moving up the rows of the bus, sometimes sitting next to students in the process. A teacher noticed Friedrichs and reported him to the bus driver, who asked him to come to the front of the bus. Police arrested Friedrichs when the bus returned to Chelsea Heights Elementary School.
According to the charges, the incident scared at least one student, bringing them to tears, and the bus driver said it was "very, very unnerving."
The charges state Friedrichs has a history masturbation on school buses. He also has criminal sexual conduct convictions from 2011 and 2015.
Friedrichs is not in custody, but has been on supervised release since January 23.