A school bus driver pleaded no contest to four misdemeanor counts as part of a plea deal to a case where he was accused of driving his bus recklessly with Hartland-Lakeside School District students on board.
Walter Cunningham, 73, of Hartland, pleaded no contest to one count of misdemeanor operating while intoxicated with a passenger younger than 16 and also pleaded no contest to three misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct at a plea and sentencing hearing May 22. The remaining 28 felony counts of second-degree recklessly endangering safety counts were dismissed, according to online court records.
For the operating while intoxicated charge, Cunningham was sentenced to 30 days in jail but was given credit for time served; his driver’s license was revoked for a year; fined $1,430 and ordered to pay other court costs. On each of the three disorderly conduct counts, Cunningham was sentenced to 45 days in jail but the sentence was stayed on each of those counts and was given one year of probation. Cunningham is also not allowed to drive a school bus or commercial vehicle and must surrender any commercial driver’s license, online court records showed.
Cunningham was originally charged with one misdemeanor count of operating under the influence, first offense with a passenger younger than 16 years old and 28 felony counts of second-degree recklessly endangering safety.
Anthony Cotton, Cunningham’s attorney, said he thought the plea agreement was fair because of the circumstances of the case.
“That was the proposal I gave them to wrap this up because my theory was that the three times he told the kids to shut up … the argument is that those are three separate disorderly conduct events,” Cotton told the Journal Sentinel May 22.
Cotton said he had struck a plea deal earlier in the case for pleading no contest to the operating while intoxicated charge earlier, but said due to some of the children’s families being upset, the plea deal had to be redone.
“I wasn’t gonna plead him out to a felony,” Cotton said. “I mean, Walter’s a good guy. He doesn’t deserve a felony. We would have gone to trial and won if they weren’t going to give us this deal.”
Andrew Nesheim, an assistant district attorney with the Waukesha County District Attorney’s office, was not immediately available for comment May 22.
The criminal complaint said police pulled over Cunningham in January 2025 after receiving a call from a student on the school bus he was driving. Surveillance video showed Cunningham stopping the bus numerous times, including in the middle of the road. When police performed field sobriety tests on Cunningham, they noticed he was struggling to perform them. They determined he was impaired and arrested him. Cunningham also said he had taken prescription medication earlier that day.
Contact Alec Johnson at (262) 875-9469 or alec.johnson@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AlecJohnson12.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Former Hartland bus driver gets plea deal in intoxicated driving case
Reporting by Alec Johnson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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