Lawrence man charged in rape of second Lowell student on his school bus

Eagle Tribune
Lawrence man charged in rape of second Lowell student on his school bus
By Mark E. Voglermvogler@eagletribune.com
March 26, 2010
LOWELL — A 22-year-old Lawrence man has been charged with the rape of a second teen-age girl who rode on the bus he drove for Lowell Public Schools.
Gian Carlos Mirabal, of 30 Jennings St., was arrested last month in the sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl. He faces new allegations from a 15-year-old victim who recently came forward.
Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone revealed the second school bus rape victim yesterday after announcing that a grand jury at Lowell Superior Court earlier in the week had indicted Mirabal on two counts of forcible child rape.
District Attorney spokeswoman Cara O'Brien said the grand jury indictments relate to the alleged assaults on both victims.
A date for Mirabal's arraignment in Lowell Superior Court has not yet been set. Initially held on $50,000 cash bail, he had been scheduled for a probable cause hearing Monday in connection with the first case.
The rape allegations in connection with the first victim came to light last month after the manager of the North Reading Transportation Bus Company reviewed security footage of a bus that was involved in a minor accident on February 25. Mirabal has been a school bus driver for the company since last June.
While reviewing the footage, the bus company manager observed "suspicious behavior involving the bus driver and a 16-year-old female student on the bus," Lowell Police Captain Randall Humphrey said in a press statement earlier this month.
The bus company contacted a school official who alerted authorities.
The investigation determined that last fall Mirabal began to ask the first victim, then in the eighth grade, to remain on the bus after he dropped the other students off. He would allegedly drive the bus to another area and assault the victim, investigators said.
The victim, who first met Mirabal last spring when she was in still in the seventh grade, told authorities she did not want to be on the bus with him.
But Mirabal physically kept her from leaving at least once and ordered her not to tell anyone about the assaults, according to investigators.
"A second victim, 15 at the time, has since come forward also alleging inappropriate behavior by the defendant," Leone said.