Earlier this month, about two weeks before Edmond children were to begin school, one of the district's school bus drivers was arrested for allegedly molesting a child. Now, Scott Keith Jepson, 32, has been formally charged in Oklahoma County District Court with multiple counts of sex crimes against a child.
Jepson, of Guthrie, has been charged with two counts of indecent or lewd acts with a child younger than 16, two counts of possession of obscene material involving a minor, three counts of distributing child pornography and one count of manufacturing child pornography.
Investigators say that a woman notified police after her 8-year-old son, who is not an Edmond Public Schools student, told a CARE Center counselor that Jepson, an acquaintance, had inappropriate sexual contact with him at the child's home in Luther twice in the same day in July 2013.
A petition for a protective order filed against the defendant on behalf of minor children was denied in June.
In late July, investigators served a search warrant at Jepson's home and seized his cell phone, which is alleged to have contained sexually explicit images of children. He is accused of then distributing child pornography through an email account.
Investigators also obtained a warrant for Jepson's computer, which was sent to Homeland Security for forensic analysis. The computer also allegedly contained images and videos of child pornography. Oklahoma Deputy Sheriff Bruce Henley, with the agency's Special Investigations Division, says that six of the videos are apparently internet downloads, but a seventh appears to have been taken by the defendant. In that case, says Henley, it appears that Jepson covertly recorded a boy as he used the restroom in the next stall of a public restroom.
The man was arrested August 6, and he was formally charged on Monday.
Edmond Public Schools officials say that there is no evidence that the bus driver, who drove a bus in the district for six years, molested any students on his route, and they assure parents that he is no longer driving a bus for the district. As a "no-show" for work earlier this month, he is in the process of being terminated from the district.
If convicted, the defendant faces significant penalties. Lewd Acts with a child under 12 carries a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison and a maximum of life. If a person convicted of lewd acts with a child is released from prison, he or she must register as a Level 3 sex offender for the remainder of his or her life.
