A Watertown bus driver convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl won’t serve time in prison. It’s a decision that’s sparked some outrage across the country.

An online petition is circulating to “recall” the sentencing judge. It has tens of thousands of signatures.

The man convicted, 26-year-old Shane Piche, was sentenced last week to 10 years of probation and ordered to register as a level one sex offender.

An outside attorney told us there are likely details that haven’t been made public. But, he can understand some of the outrage.

Whether you like a perpetrator or a defendant or if you don’t like them, they’re still entitled to a defense,” said Gerald Raymond of Tully Rinckey Syracuse Managing Partner. “There are always factors that are going to be present in a case that the general public doesn’t know about.”

Raymond says if Piche had gone to trial he could have faced some time behind bars.