Nantucket Jury Finds Bus Driver Guilty On Child Rape, Child Pornography Charges

As a 12-person jury walked out of Nantucket Superior Court late Tuesday afternoon after announcing a guilty verdict, one of the jurors paused and shot a long, hard stare at Adrian Bacchas, 36, the defendant who the jury had just convicted on numerous charges, including child rape. He was sentenced Wednesday morning to serve 10 years in state prison. 

The moment was representative of what had just taken place in the courtroom where after two days of testimony and statements by prosecutors and the defense attorney, the jury of five females and seven males found Bacchas guilty on two charges of aggravated rape of a child (with at least a five-year age difference), one charge of forcible rape of a child, one charge of rape of a child, and one charge of possessing child pornography.

Bacchas, a former bus driver with the Nantucket Regional Transit Authority (NRTA), had his bail revoked, and he was held at the Nantucket Police Department overnight until his sentencing hearing Wednesday morning. 

To ensure the privacy of the victim and one of the individuals who testified during the trial, the Current is not publishing names, exact ages, or addresses of those individuals. 

Three people provided testimony during the trial: the victim, a friend of the victim, and former Nantucket Police Department detective and current NPD officer Derek Witherell, who oversaw the investigation. The prosecution was led by Cape & Islands assistant district attorney Michael Giardino. Bacchas was represented by defense attorney Drew Segadelli.

The allegations against Bacchas stem from several sexual assaults that took place from March 2021 to December 2021. The victim was under the age of 16 when the relationship began in March of that year. Bacchas was a bus driver for the town’s NRTA public bus service and encountered the victim taking the bus after school. The victim told police all her communication with Bacchas was done through the Snapchat app, and it began with random conversations that consisted of Bacchas saying “an occasional dirty joke.”

Eventually police said the relationship progressed and Bacchas began to ask the victim to meet in 'Sconset. The first meeting occurred in March off Low Beach Road where Bacchas picked the victim up in his truck, drove toward the dunes beyond the Coast Guard housing and, according to their report, eventually forced the victim to perform a sex act. 

Their encounters continued, about twice per month, through the year. The victim stated during her testimony that she had at least 18 sexual encounters with the defendant. 

The victim said Bacchas would send Snapchat messages asking to meet in the boys' bathroom near the 'Sconset center. The victim also described another incident that occurred in November at Cod Fish Park in 'Sconset. The victim recalled telling Bacchas “no” and “stop touching me” as he forced the victim to perform a sex act.

The initial incident in March and the meeting at Cod Fish Park in November were the two times when their sexual encounters were non-consensual according to the victim. It should be noted however that even if the victim wanted to engage in these actions, anyone under the age of 16 cannot legally consent to sexual intercourse or any sexual acts under Massachusetts law.

Police were able to identify Bacchas after looking through the victim’s phone messages, and he was interviewed by detectives on Wednesday, January 12, 2022. About 30 minutes of this interview was played by prosecutors for the jury on Tuesday.

At first, the jury and those in the courtroom could hear Bacchas tell Witherell and now-retired NPD Lt. Tom Clinger that “there is no relationship” between him and the victim. But he later admitted that he had sexual relations with her. He told police that he thought the victim was 18 or 19 at first but admitted he learned later on she was younger than 16 years old. He confirmed that he only communicated with her over Snapchat.

The victim testified that very early on in their relationship (they first met in September of 2020), she and Bacchas had a conversation about her age while on the bus. She told him to guess her age and he said 16. She told him her exact age, which was younger than the age of consent. Bacchas then proceeded to ask the victim to guess his age. She told him late 20s and he replied telling her he was 35.

While the victim said there were at least 18 sexual encounters between her and Bacchas, the prosecution only moved forward focusing on four incidents after gathering all of the evidence. It was those four incidents they felt they could prove beyond a reasonable doubt to the jury, and the jury eventual validated that belief with its verdict. They were described in detail during the trial by the victim. 

Witherell said during his testimony that as he was searching Bacchas’ phone, he found a video of one of the encounters between the victim and Bacchas in the “recently deleted” folder.

The video was shown to the jury on a large TV during the victim’s testimony. 

Segadelli argued that the evidence from the phone, including the video, Bacchas’ Snapchat account and every word and action seen in the 30-minute police interview, should not be considered by the jury because while he was read his Miranda Rights by Witherell, Bacchas would never have willingly handed over his phone and pin had he known the police went into the interview feeling “they had enough probable cause to arrest him” before he entered the room to speak with them.

“If (Giardino) has not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that (Bacchas) words were made free and voluntary, then you exclude them (from your decision),” Segadelli said. “Exclude that whole tape. That is in your ability to do.”

Segadelli felt Witherell did not paint a clear enough picture of the situation Bacchas was in, which didn’t allow Bacchas to make a truly free and voluntary decision to speak to police and hand over his phone. He argued it was impossible for Bacchas to make that decision without being provided with a clear overview of the situation he was in. 

It was up to the jury to decide whether Bacchas made all of the statements and decisions in that interview freely and voluntarily. Based on the jury’s’ decision, they did not feel that Witherell failing to tell Bacchas he may be arrested - regardless of what happened in that interview room - was enough to exclude the police interview and any contents from the phone willingly handed over to police from their decision.

When the victim’s friend was asked about the relationship during her testimony, she said the victim told her about an incident at school during lunch period in either March or June of 2021, but admitted she couldn’t remember the exact time. The victim said she told her friend about one sexual encounter in March.

The victim stated during her testimony she felt the first incident “was her fault” because she felt she should have known he wanted something. In his police interview, Bacchas referred to the victim as a “troubled girl."

That statement clearly angered Giardino, who blasted Bacchas during his closing argument for the “troubled girl” comment. He argued it was an indication he was manipulating her and knowingly taking advantage of her situation. He then encouraged the jury to find him guilty on all five charges.

“This case is about (the victim) – about (the victim) where things at home weren’t great and that she was alone. Those are the statements she made from the witness stand,” Giardino said. “This case is about Adrian Bacchas, who was 35 years old at the time and about Adrian Bacchas taking advantage of (the victim’s) situation for his own means. What did he do? Listen to her, Snapchat her, bought her gifts during the time they spoke to each other, and in return what did he get for those things?

“From this, he called her 'Troubled girl.' That is what he called her in his interview as he continued to communicate with her and talk to her and have her perform these sexual acts on him,” Giardino continued.

The jury eventually deliberated for approximately two hours before returning to reveal its verdicts.