JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A former Jacksonville Transportation Authority bus driver on Wednesday pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter in the 2019 death of a woman who was run over, according to Duval County court records.
Jean Silney’s trial was set to start Monday.
Recommended Videos
Silney was arrested in October 2019 after a woman was killed in June of that year when she became entangled while exiting a bus in Mayport.
According to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, homicide investigators determined there was an argument on the bus between Silney and Jeanie Rozar over the bus schedule. Police said investigators obtained video of the argument, which showed Rozar exiting the bus.
The video, police said, showed Rozar’s arm closed in the bus’s glass door, and the bus took off at a high rate of speed and back into traffic. According to police, the video shows Rozar running next to the bus, attempting to free her arm before she was run over by the bus.
Reports released in the case allege the driver “ignored the victim’s screams” as she tried to pull her arm out of the bus.
Silney was fired after the May 2019 incident. He had been a driver with JTA since 2007. A News4JAX records request for Silney’s personnel file revealed he was fired months before the incident where Rozar was killed for nearly running over his supervisor’s foot with a bus when she confronted him about being early. He was then re-hired after the driver’s union appealed his termination.
Silney, 55, is scheduled to be sentenced on April 4.