A former school bus driver was ordered held behind bars with no bail on Friday as he awaits trial after being accused of setting fire to two Utah school buses, one filled with children, authorities said.
Michael Austin Ford, 58, of West Valley City, a Salt Lake City suburb, was ordered detained without bail by Magistrate Judge Cecilia M. Romero. She said in the detention order that Ford was a danger “to the entire community.”
A federal public defender assigned to the case did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Friday, the lawyer filed a motion asking that Ford’s detention without bail be reconsidered.
He was charged in a federal grand jury indictment returned Feb. 21 with two counts of arson of a vehicle of an organization receiving federal funds, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah said Saturday.
Ford faces a parallel case in Salt Lake City District Court that includes charges of aggravated arson, aggravated child abuse and obstructing justice. An association that provides public defenders for state court defendants did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Federal prosecutors say he was on the job as a bus driver for Salt Lake City’s Granite School District when he set fire to buses on Feb. 24, 2022 and April 7, 2023, according to the indictment in his federal case.
In the 2022 incident, 42 school children were on board, federal prosecutors said in a filing last month that argues the defendant should be held without bail. State prosecutors said there were 66 children on board.
A district spokesperson told NBC News affiliate KSL of Salt Lake City that the students on board attended a nearby secondary school and that none were injured.
In that blaze, federal prosecutors said, the defendant continued driving as flames grew under the dashboard and smoke wafted into the cabin toward the children. Security video captured the incident, they said.
“Minutes after the Defendant started the fire, he continues to drive the bus,…
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