Bus driver must have psychiatric test

Posted 8:18AM on Saturday 26th January 2002 ( 23 years ago )

OLEY, PENNSYLVANIA - A school bus driver accused of taking 13 children on a curious, 115-mile ``field trip'' with a rifle by his side appeared in court on kidnapping charges Friday and was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Police also disclosed that they found 48 weapons in Otto Nuss' house, including a dozen handguns, as well as 75 rounds of ammunition on the bus. At an appearance in federal court in Philadelphia, Nuss, 63, was ordered jailed for a hearing next week. Asked about his mental competency, public defender Felicia Sarner said: ``I think there are clearly issues that need to be developed here.'' Nuss surrendered on Thursday just outside Washington, D.C., after a strange, six-hour odyssey during which he told the youngsters on his bus that he was taking them on a field trip to the nation's capital instead of delivering them to their Pennsylvania religious school. A friend said Nuss had been treated for psychiatric problems but had recently gone off his medication. He said Nuss collected guns. During a hearing earlier in the day Friday in federal court in Greenbelt, Md., a federal magistrate asked Nuss whether he suffers from mental illness. Nuss replied, ``No sir, I'm not insane.'' When asked if he understood the case against him, Nuss said: ``I'm not totally involved in it, is what I'm saying.'' Public defender Daniel Stiller said after the hearing that Nuss believes that he is not totally responsible for bringing the children to Maryland and that there was a ``setup.'' Stiller refused to elaborate. ``It's a sad case, not a sinister one,'' Stiller said. School officials said this was Nuss' first year driving a bus for them and that he had passed criminal background and child-abuse checks. However, neither check looks into an applicant's mental health history. In Pennsylvania, the Rev. Jim Smith offered prayers for Nuss at the service at a church next to the Berks Christian School, northwest of Philadelphia. ``Right now, he is alone in a jail,'' Smith said. Students nodded in agreement, then bowed their heads in prayer as Smith talked about Nuss. ``He really needs people to be praying for him.'' About 200 students, including at least three who had been aboard the bus, attended the service, school administrator Robert Becker said. The bus had picked up the students, ages 7 through 15, in Oley, Pa., on Thursday morning for their daily six-mile trip to the religious school in Birdsboro. When the bus failed to reach its destination, residents, a police helicopter and cruisers frantically searched the route. The strange trip ended at a discount store in Landover Hills, Md., where Nuss surrendered to an off-duty police officer. ``He said he wanted to show them Washington, D.C.,'' FBI spokesman Peter Gulotta Jr. said. Craig Ziemer, whose 11-year-old daughter Ashley was on the bus, called the six hours it was missing ``the most horrible thing I've ever experienced.'' Students said they knew he had a gun behind his seat, but they played games, helped Nuss plan the route, and felt at ease when he stopped the bus to treat them to lunch at a Burger King. ``He never touched anybody,'' said eighth-grader Josh Pletscher, 13. ``We were having fun. We were having cars honk their horns.'' Pletscher said that Nuss never touched the gun during the trip and that when a child noticed it, he said it was ``a symbol to bin Laden.'' ``It just didn't seem like he was kidnapping us,'' said ninth-grader Tyler Rudolph, 15. ``He told us we all needed a wake-up call and that we were going to learn something. And he was going to learn something, too.'' According to court papers, one of the students wrote 911 on a fogged bus window. Earl Derr, a longtime friend of Nuss, said Friday he had taken Nuss for psychiatric help in the 1970s and that Nuss had admitted himself to a hospital. Derr said Nuss had taken prescribed medication since then, but told him in November that his doctor said he could stop. ``I think he got off his medication, and it just worked on his nerves,'' Derr said. He said Nuss' mother, who lived with him until her death about eight years ago, had helped make sure he took the medication. Nuss had worked at Mrs. Smith's Bakeries in Pottstown for 42 years, working his way to foreman, until the pie plant closed in 1998. Former co-worker Steve Oskiera said Nuss occasionally lost his temper and threatened his colleagues but never hurt anyone. ``He said it so often, no one took him seriously,'' he said.

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