Former Pewaukee school bus driver accused of sexual assault found guilty

Thomas Felser, 63, learned his fate Thursday, May 7. 

The assaults reportedly happened between September of 2024 through May of 2025. The jury heard from victims, seen video from the bus camera, and heard from the defendant himself.  

CBS 58

The jury began deliberating at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, deciding whether Felser was guilty of the 11 felony charges he faced -- including repeated sexual assault of a child and sexual misconduct. The victims were between 4 and 6 years old. 

Felser was discovered last spring when one of the students' mothers saw on a GPS that the bus hadn't moved in 10 minutes. When she got to the bus and called her daughter's name, Felser's head reportedly popped up. 

In video presented in court, we saw Felser leaning over a seat in the middle of the bus. That's reportedly where he would touch young girls or lay on top of them, as reported in the criminal complaint. 

Investigators say Felser told young girls to stay in the back of the bus to play a game before assaulting them. The defendant took the stand Wednesday, admitting it did look like his hands were on their private areas, but he claims he was just patting the front of their pants to see if they had any accidents. 

"Does he have his hands in a place that looks bad?" Felser's defense attorney said. "Sure does, sure does. But it's also obstructed by her clothing. You might find it's contact with an intimate part. Was it intentional and did it have a sexual purpose beyond a reasonable doubt?"

"This case was not built off assumptions," the prosecution said. "This case was built off evidence. Evidence about how Thomas Felser, a school bus driver who was entrusted with the safety of the students on his bus, instead preyed on those very students."

Felser had been a teacher in the school district for over 30 years before working as a bus driver. If found guilty, he'll spend the rest of his life in prison.