A former school transportation van driver was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison for sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl in his van, according to reporting by The Cincinnati Enquirer.
Steffen Yates, 43, was convicted of gross sexual imposition after a bench trial in September in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, and Judge Christian Jenkins imposed the sentence on October 29, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported. Yates will also have to register as a sex offender for 25 years.
The girl was a student at Struble Elementary in Colerain Township, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. Yates had driven her to the school on March 18, 2025, and prosecutors said the assault happened after they arrived, while the girl waited in the van for permission to enter the school, when what prosecutors described as a “tickling game” turned into Yates reaching around the girl and touching her through her underwear, the Enquirer reported.
The girl told a teacher what had happened later that same day, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer, and Yates was arrested and jailed the same day. A security camera at the front of the van captured the tickling and showed Yates’ hand behind the girl’s back, prosecutors said, according to the Enquirer.
Yates’ attorney, Richard Magnus, told The Cincinnati Enquirer that Yates received credit for just over 19 months he has already served, and that Yates has asked the court to appoint an attorney for an appeal.
Northwest Local School District officials have said Yates’ van was a contracted transportation service van that was not part of the district’s own transportation department, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer.
With credit for the just over 19 months already served, according to his attorney as reported by The Cincinnati Enquirer, the sentence imposed Thursday accounts for the time Yates has spent in custody since his arrest on March 18, 2025, the same day the student reported the assault to her teacher.
What happens next is the appeal Yates has asked the court to appoint counsel to pursue, while his three-year sentence and 25-year registration requirement stand as imposed. The case closes the court proceedings that began with his arrest on the day the student reported the assault in March 2025.