Ex-Olympia school bus driver pleads not guilty to raping student

Bail was set at $300,000 Monday for a former Olympia School District bus driver accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy more than eight years ago.

Jimmy W. Wall, 50, was arraigned Monday in Thurston County Superior Court. He pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree rape of a child and two counts of first-degree child molestation. A trial was set for the week of June 27.

Wall worked as a bus driver in the Olympia School District for almost 14 years before resigning voluntarily March 30. The Centralia resident had been training to become a bus driver for Intercity Transit when he was arrested May 6, according to prosecutors.

The sexual assaults allegedly took place during the 2007-2008 school year when the victim was a student at Madison Elementary School and Wall was his bus driver.

Wall also is the former roommate of Gary Shafer, a former Olympia School District bus driver who was convicted in 2011 of sexually assaulting three girls while on the job. Schafer admitted to molesting as many as 30 kindergarten-age children over a six-year period.

According to charging documents, Wall would take the boy geocaching at local parks and sexually assault him in secluded wooded areas. The boy told police that Wall had sex with him at least 10 times.

The victim told police that Wall was often seen with a camera at Madison Elementary during an after-school program, and would take photos of the students. The victim reported that during this program, Wall had sexually assaulted him at a storage shed and at a stage area on school property, according to documents.

The Olympia School District released a statement Monday about the allegations against Wall. The statement said the district first learned of the allegations on April 11 during a court deposition involving a former student, and “has no knowledge that the student making the allegations against Mr. Wall ever disclosed those allegations to any employees.”

At Monday’s hearing, defense attorney Wayne Fricke asked the court to release Wall on personal recognizance. Fricke also said his client had previously passed a polygraph test that asked about sexual contact with students.

“These allegations are eight to nine years old,” said Fricke, noting that the allegations against his client surfaced in a civil case against the school district. “There hasn’t been any real investigation by police.”

Prosecutors said Wall has a business called WallShots Photography with a website that includes photos of minors. According to his LinkedIn profile, Wall also worked as a bus driver for Modesto City Schools in California from 1988 to 1994.

This story was originally published May 9, 2016 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Ex-Olympia school bus driver pleads not guilty to raping student."