Waiving arraignment in Sanilac County District Court about two weeks ago, the 47-year-old Applegate man who rear-ended a Sandusky bus in December will be appearing for his pre-trial hearing next week, on Monday, January 9.
The court submitted a “not guilty” plea on Charles Alexander Badley’s behalf, being charged with two misdemeanors, a count of failure to stop after a collision and failure to report an accident.
Chief Lester reported that it was about 3:05 p.m. on Thursday, December 1, when the accident happened on South Elk and Lincoln Streets, with Badley’s black pickup truck fleeing the scene as the bus pulled over. The bus driver notified police and the school, who later notified parents. Seven of the 55 students on the bus reported minor muscle aches after the impact, but no other injuries were reported, with only minor damage to the bus.
The black pickup truck, however, suffered major damage from the accident, an event that another school bus driving behind had caught on its onboard camera.
Footage from the bus gave police license plate information, which in turn gave them an address that had them knocking on the door of Badley’s Applegate home within about an hour of the accident.
