Katrina Dacus Pleads Guilty in Baker High Bus Crash, Gets Two Years

Katrina Nicole Dacus, 36, of Culver, signed a plea agreement in late February that calls for her to plead guilty to 17 of 29 counts and to receive two years in state prison and a five-year suspension of her driver’s license. The agreement stems from a March 22, 2024 collision just west of Redmond, where prosecutors say Dacus drove her Subaru through a stop sign at the intersection with Highway 126 and crashed into a Baker High School short bus.

The grand jury indictment returned in 2024 originally charged Dacus with 29 counts, including two felony counts of third-degree assault tied to the two people who suffered the most serious injuries in the crash. One of those seriously injured is named in filings as Bibiana Gifft, Baker High School’s FFA advisor and the driver of the short bus during the collision.

Public reporting and court filings list the counts Dacus will plead to as follows: two third-degree assault counts, nine fourth-degree assault counts described as one for each injured student, four counts of recklessly endangering another person described as for students who weren’t injured, and one count of second-degree criminal mischief related to damage to the bus. That enumerated list sums to 16 counts, however; filings and coverage also state she will plead guilty to 17 of 29 counts. The discrepancy leaves one count unspecified in the published list and is not clarified in the available filings.

Under the terms described in the petition filed by defense attorney Ethan Meaney, the plea will result in dismissal of 12 counts from the indictment: 11 counts of recklessly endangering another person and one reckless driving count. The plea agreement states Dacus “admits causing economic harm, but that she ‘maintains right to challenge reasonableness of restitution request (if any).’” The petition that outlines the deal was filed Feb. 23, 2026, after Meaney filed a motion on Feb. 5 saying Dacus wanted to accept a plea offer.

Dacus was briefly jailed after her March 2024 arrest and was granted conditional release on March 25, 2024. She was scheduled to enter the plea in Deschutes County Circuit Court in Bend on Feb. 26 at 3 p.m.; the case had previously been set for trial on March 31, 2026, in Bend. The petition and related docket entries name Ethan Meaney as defense counsel but do not provide a prosecutor statement, a restitution figure, or a definitive signed date beyond the late-February timing referenced in the filings.

The crash left nine students counted among the injured in the fourth-degree assault charges, and at least four students were cited in recklessly endangering counts despite not being injured, with one criminal mischief count tied to bus damage. Court documents filed Feb. 23 and related reporting provide the framework of the deal, but the precise list of the 17 counts in the agreement and any restitution amounts remain unspecified in the publicly described filings.