Former Amherst County High School QB appears in court on drug charges
Peter Rose
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By Chris Dumond
Published: September 2, 2008
AMHERST — Felony drug charges against a former Amherst County High School football star were certified to a grand jury Tuesday during a preliminary hearing in Amherst County General District Court.
Peter Rose, 18, was charged in May with two counts of selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school. The charges came after a yearlong investigation by an undercover Amherst County sheriff’s deputy posing as a senior at the school.
The deputy’s identity was made public Tuesday when she testified in court. Brooke Hedrick, identified by the sheriff’s office only as being in her 20s, testified she first enrolled in June 2006 during summer school.
“They had a lot of drug complaints at the high school,” Hedrick testified.
Rose, who led the Lancers to back-to-back state titles, was not a target of her investigation, she said. Hedrick said she knew who he was and that she shared an English class with him, but the two had never had a conversation when he approached her in the school parking lot on April 29.
She testified that he asked, “‘Were you looking for some today,’ meaning drugs.”
Within 15 minutes, she said, Rose met her in the McDonald’s parking lot off U.S. 60 in Amherst. He sold her a quarter of an ounce of marijuana for $50, she said.
Then on May 7, she testified, they again met at the McDonald’s, where he sold her another $50 bag, she said.
Both exchanges were video and audio taped, she testified.
On cross-examination by Joseph Sanzone, Rose’s defense lawyer, Hedrick denied that she had set the meeting place. Instead, she said, it was Rose’s idea to meet there.
Investigator Dennie Black testified Hedrick was parked 694 feet away from Amherst Elementary School.
After the hearing, Sanzone said the way the distance from a school is measured could be an issue if Rose is indicted by a grand jury and goes to trial. If the alleged sale had taken place outside the 1,000-foot school zone, the crime would be a misdemeanor, he said.
While questioning Black, Sanzone suggested the distance along the normally traveled route between the school and the restaurant would be much more than 1,000 feet.
Judge Edwin Burnette ruled there was enough evidence to send the case forward. Burnette added that he had researched the question of how distance should be measured in these cases, but could not find any precedent.
Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Carey Payne asked the judge to drop two misdemeanor charges of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Payne said he will bring the lesser charges back to the grand jury, but wanted to avoid procedural confusion between the misdemeanors and felonies Tuesday.
Rose is free on bond. A conviction for selling drugs in a school zone carries a penalty of one to five years in prison.
As the school’s quarterback in 2006 and 2007, he led the Lancers to two state titles. As a senior, the Associated Press and Virginia High School League Coaches Association named him the Virginia Group AA Player of the Year.
He had been recruited to play cornerback at Virginia Tech, but his scholarship offer was revoked after the charges were filed.
Rose’s brother Anthony, a junior, stepped into the role of quarterback for the Lancers this season. The football team has shown support for the Rose family. In the team’s opening scrimmage at William Campbell High School, one player had a towel tucked into his hip pocket that read “4 Rose.”
First-year coach Cecil Phillips said Anthony and the team are using Rose’s troubles as inspiration for this season.
Laura Clark, a staff writer for the New Era-Progress in Amherst, contributed to this report.
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( Freedom ) on September 04, 2008 at 6:06 am
goooo YANKEE,S!!!
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Posted by ( scrivsand ) on September 03, 2008 at 10:43 pm
He should have been allowed to finish school because you should be innocent until proven guilty! The reason they are arguing the distance is because the punishment of selling drugs within 1000 feet of a school is much harsher.
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Posted by ( t4nymets ) on September 03, 2008 at 10:36 pm
He was charged with felonies?!! I guess he should just consider himself lucky that the Amherst County cops didn’t kill him while he was in custody.
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Posted by ( pocketpair ) on September 03, 2008 at 8:48 pm
(pinkplanet) = seriously??? Too hard on him? They are charging him with the crime he committed….nothing more. He should be accountable for his actions. As for graduation, would it have been bad if they charged him with 2 months left? What’s the difference? I doubt very seriously he was thinking “Man!! If they would have just waited till I graduated!!!“
I don’t see a problem…..they charged him with what he did, just like they should have.
As for damalama, if you live in Amherst, seems like you need to move. If you don’t, keep your nose out of our business! What do you care?
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Posted by ( Pinkplanet ) on September 03, 2008 at 6:02 pm
He is only 18. Cut him some slack! Yes he broke the law. Yes he needs to be punished. Some community service should do the trick. Why do you want to send an 18 year old to jail lburger. This is his first offense. Marijuana is illegal but I’ll bet he didn’t force anyone to use it. It isn’t like he assaulted, robbed, raped, or killed someone. Get some perspective!
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Posted by ( Freedom ) on September 03, 2008 at 5:29 pm
hey ZIGGIEMONSTER!!talkin about a WARPED mind !!you need to put that wackie weed down right now !!ok,,nice and easy,,there you go,,it will be alright ..now boys get er in that anti-CULT van,,,ok ziggie we will get you grounded and back to earth,,hey dr. got that shot ready !!ok ,,talk about a close one!!we have the psychotropic drugs to get you right ,,ok ziggie !!now to your SECOND chance,,,where is it GIRL !!hunnn..,, there is no sec chance at a nfl career,,u r so stupid,,the devil is in your head ,,even GOD himself would,nt wish a thing like that on anyone,,and trust me girl drug dealin aint easy !!again WRONG !!you dummies just because you watch one drug movie,,you have it in your head that its all big houses,,lots of girls,,bling-bling,,cars ,cars,,thats columbia/mexico/asia/hong kong etc..and when you do knock on the RIGHT door,,ask GOD,,hey lord,,ahhh USA been fightin drug war for 90 years,,with the first real coke-a-cola,,the coke you drink today ,,was made with COCAINE,,thus the name,,oh gov,,got rid of it,,how about MOONSHINE gov got ride of that,,what does government do today ,,heck just keeps on building jails,,just keeps puttin more people in it,,did you know that we have more people in prison,,per-capita than RUSSIA !! than CHINA !!and you wanna say its the kids fault !!tell you what if al-quida bombs over here,,what you gonna say,,oh its my fault,,i didnt make the right decision to have an arsonal in my basement,,i dont think so ,,you would blame it on bush !!because you trust your gov.to protect you,,tell me where drugs are any differant!!especially when that war was going on since 1920,,way before any of us were ever born !!we inherit it,,and our gov,wont build a fence,,wont get rid of illegal mule runners,,wont bomb the drug countries,,but will bomb iraq,,yogosolvia,somolia,,libyia,,et.el.the only country it ever invaded for drugs was PANAMA,,heck it has allowed AFGAN to increase its OPIUM 300 %,,so the mule mexicans can deliver it here !!so people get you heads out of your butts,,and STUDY DRUG HISTORY !!read the boxer wars,,china and west fighting over the control of the opium trade,,then think about afgan !!and quit blamming our kids,,if it wont here to start with then how in the heck are you gonna do it,,i,ve lived here for decades,,so long ago you didnt even know what pot was !!,,and each decade it gets worse,,and more liveds ruined,,and more jails built,,all a waste of tax money,,like a derange dog chasing its own tail!!and its always the little children that pay the price!!and agin think california ,,they sell wakkie weed cigs in vending machines,,and your possible VP PALIN home state legalizes marawahana..so let me go ahead an play the race ace of spade card..,,blacks are still on the bottom rung when it comes to employment,,so why would you make his life worse,,you might as well as take that boy out to the nearest tree and hang him,,cause thats what a drug charge will do to him for the rest of his life !!how do i know,,as management,,who hired hundreds of people in my lifetime trust me !!your resume was the first i threw in the trash !!and i fired you if you even got a misderminor !!you might as well charge him as a pedophile,,thats his future,,and you ZIGGIE,,CARDIOGAL,,DALAMOUSE,,LBURGER pat yourself on your back and tell yourself,,yea we are all better cause ROSE was/is gonna be put away,,better yet educated yourself about drugs and the 90 yr drug war this country has been fighting,,cause just because you walked out of some high scholl,,education is for a lifetime ,,when you stop self education your brains dies !!and the only true christian i see here is 269,,funny HE did say that did,nt he ,,about the purity of children and not to push them away !!FREEDOM HAS SPOKEN !!
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Posted by ( Freedom ) on September 03, 2008 at 4:18 pm
..ok IBURGER ,,i give up !!what you are doing here is the same thing you did to me in the garden of eden!!kept pushing that darn apple on me !!,,tellin me some snake was talking to you,,and you to the snake,,i should have known then that you were on MUSHROOMS that you picked from the garden that beautiful morn,,cause baby it sure has been a livin nightmare every since,,you are right its no bodies fault but your own !!END OF STORY,,how you like them apples !!and u zigglemitchell,,i commin for you next !!say your prayers !!,,AMEN
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Posted by ( lburger ) on September 03, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Freedom, I can just barely comprehend what you’re talking about, especially with your horrible spelling and punctuation, but I gather that you don’t think it was Rose’s fault that he was arrested for selling drugs, that someone put them in his hands, or made them available (and irresistible) to him, that Mexicans at the border are more responsible for the drug problem than Peter Rose is. Blah, blah, blah. One of the many problems with people today, particularly young people, is that no one wants to take responsibility for their actions. Everyone wants to blame it on everyone else, say someone else is the bad guy and they’re just a victim. The cops are corrupt, certain segments of society are profiled and framed, “It’s not my fault…“ Rose broke the law. End of story. Hopefully, if his lawyer doesn’t sleaze his way out of it, he’ll have some time to think about it in jail.
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Posted by ( cardiogal ) on September 03, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Life is about choices and the consequences that come with those choices. Drugs are illegal, and those who choose to buy or sell them should be fully prepared to suffer the consequences. Don’t blame the police or our schools for doing their jobs and what is necessary to keep our children safe and healthy. As an athlete, this student should be held accountable and should understand that he serves as a role model for younger children. He made the choice to break the law. He should fully pay the consequences. Hopefully, this mistake will teach him a lesson and keep him from ruining the rest of his life with drugs.
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Posted by ( himaint269 ) on September 03, 2008 at 2:13 pm
In response to damalama, did you ever think that the football players are supporting a friend?? Just because people make the wrong choices does not mean that those who are their friends should just walk away & have nothing else to do with them? Everyone makes bad decisions at some point in time during their life & I am sure that you are not excluded. As for your last sentence, you should not generalize all the people from a certain area. There is nothing wrong with living in Amherst County, country or not. That is what is wrong w/ the world today, people putting others down because of where they grew up, we are all the same whether you like it or not!
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