Drug charges move to grand jury

By Chris Dumond

Published: September 2, 2008

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, is charged with two counts of selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school. An undercover Amherst County sheriff’s deputy posing as a senior at the school charged him in May after a yearlong investigation.

Brooke Hedrick, a short brunette 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 was not a target of her investigation, she testified. 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 Amherst McDonald’s parking lot off U.S. 60. 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.

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 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 avoid 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, 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.