Former bus driver, music teacher takes plea, sentenced to 12 years for child sex assault

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - A former El Paso County school bus driver and a church music teacher, pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a child and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Robert Gordon was offered a plea deal by the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office which dismissed several charges, including three counts of sex assault on a child in a position of trust, three counts of sexual contact on a child, and aggravated sex offense. Gordon ended up pleading guilty to Sexual Assault on a Child by One in a Position of Trust, Unlawful Sexual Contact, and Enticement of a Child, according to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.

The 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office told KRDO13 Investigates offering a plea deal was “strategic,” but couldn’t elaborate further.

On Dec. 8, 2023, Gordon was sentenced to two terms of six years in the Department of Corrections which will run consecutively for a total of 12 years in prison. He was also sentenced to 20 years to life in the Sex Offender Intensive Supervision Program.

Gordon is currently at the Denver Reception and Diagnostic Center, according to the Colorado Department of Corrections. His next eligible parole date is February 2029.

According to the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, the department's Special Victim's Unit (SVU) received a report of a sexual assault on a child in April. The parents of a 14-year-old boy found inappropriate text messages between their child and Gordon. The child was interviewed by a certified Forensic Interviewer and SVU obtained further evidence.

On April 13, detectives arrested the 58-year-old. According to the sheriff's office, Gordon was a music teacher at the First United Pentecostal Church in Security-Widefield. He also served as a school bus driver for a couple of school districts throughout El Paso County in the past, which is why investigators said there could be additional victims.

And this isn’t the first time Gordon has been arrested for similar sexual assault accusations.

Court records show back in the early 2000s, Gordon was in court with two counts of sexual assault on a child with force and one count of sexual assault of a child in a position of trust. But all three charges were acquitted.

In 2012, Gordon was involved in another case where he faced charges of sexual abuse, sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, and six counts of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust with a victim under the age of 15. However, he was found not guilty in 2014.

Gordon was also convicted of harboring a runaway child, a class two misdemeanor, in 1998.