06-03-2025
Ex-Lebanon bus driver back in prison after pleading guilty to sex crimes involving minors
A convicted felon has pleaded guilty to sex crimes involving minors. The same defendant has served a prison sentence in a separate child sex-crime case when working as a Lebanon school bus driver.
Stephen Massey, 56, pleaded guilty in January to rape of a child, sexual battery by an authority figure and sexual battery. Massey was sentenced to 25 years in prison, according to the 15th Judicial District Attorney's Office.
Each crime involved different victims who were children at the time of the offense, according to the district attorney's office.
The latest convictions did not involve Massey's former employment as a school bus driver, prosecutors have said. Massey's booking at the Wilson County Jail listed Carthage as his home address. Massey has been transferred to prison, according to the Wilson County Sheriff's Office.
Massey served a separate five-year prison sentence that expired in July 2021 after he pleaded guilty in October 2017 to two counts of attempted solicitation of a minor.
The 2017 conviction related to charges that prosecutors said occurred late in 2015 to early in 2016 when Massey was employed as a bus driver for the Lebanon Special School District. Prosecutors said that Massey manipulated two students, ages 7 and 9 at the time, to expose body parts.
The latest conviction comes from a plea agreement on charges filed in 2021 for crimes that occurred in 2007-2008 and 2013-2014, and charges filed in 2023 for crimes that occurred in 2012, according to the district attorney's office.
Massey's sentence is 25 years on the rape of a child conviction, six years for sexual battery by an authority figure and two years for sexual battery. The sentences run concurrently for an effective sentence of 25 years, according to the district attorney's office. Massey will be classified as a violent offender on the sex offender registry and be subject to community supervision for life.
There were other charges dismissed as part of the plea agreement, prosecutors said.
Reach Andy Humbles at ahumbles@ and on X, formerly known as Twitter @ AndyHumbles.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Stephen Massey, ex-Lebanon bus driver pleads guilty to sex crimes
