‘Traumatized my daughter’: Man incompetent for trial after alleged groping of student on Duval bus

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]New at 6, only Action News Jax has learned more about this 41-year-old man, Todd Kohlhepp Collars. Police say that he boarded a school bus, groped a student, and exposed himself. I'm Teneeka Hughes.

[00:00:13]>> I'm Ben Becker. He was formally charged in connection to the incident on April 24th, but just last week a Duval County judge found him incompetent to stand trial. Tonight, he's in a state mental health hospital. Action News Jax Dasia Mayfield is live from DCPS headquarters and spoke to a legal expert. And Dasia, you also heard from the victim's mother who says what happened to her daughter could have been avoided.

[00:00:37]Ben and Teneeka, yeah, that's because the suspect has a long criminal history of violence against women and sexual offenses dating all the way back to 2009. According to the legal expert I talked to though, she says it could be a very long time before Mr. Collars is out on the street again.

[00:00:57]Action News Jax is investigating the long criminal background of a man accused of groping and exposing himself to a student on a school bus. We counted at least 10 times that 41-year-old Todd Collars has been arrested for crimes against women from March of this year dating back to 2009.

[00:01:17]Last week a Duval County judge found Collars incompetent to stand trial.

[00:01:22]That's after police say he boarded a school bus, exposed himself, and groped a student in March. Records show in 2009 Collars had a domestic violence injunction placed against him after police say he punched a woman in the face. Then from 2009 to January of 2012, arrest records show Collars violated that injunction four times. Between 2013 and 2018, we found more arrest records showing the man was charged with felony sexual offense, stalking, battery, and exposing sexual organs. Then in August of last year, Colors was charged again with exposing sexual organs. This time, a Duval County judge ordered him to be involuntarily committed to a mental institution and is now again spending time in a state facility. How did he get on a bus? Attorney Michelle Suskaur is a criminal defense attorney not associated with the case. She says while the facts surrounding the case are troubling, experts conduct full evaluations before a person is ever deemed incompetent. But Jerica Major, the mother of the teen victim on the bus, believes this could have all been avoided had the suspect been held accountable sooner. It's obviously very, very concerning as a parent looking at these types of charges in the past.

[00:02:47]Now back in March when this information first came out, a spokesperson with Duval County Public Schools said that Colors had only touched a student on the knee briefly. We've reached out to the district since learning that something much more nefarious has taken place for comment. We're still waiting to hear back. For local coverage you can count on on the Southbank, Dejah Mayfield, Action News Jax.