Former Amherst QB Peter Rose indicted on drug charges

By Chris Dumond
Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: October 15, 2008

An Amherst County grand jury returned drug indictments this week on former Amherst County High School football star Peter Rose.

Rose, 18, was charged in May with two felony 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.

Prosecutors also brought back two misdemeanor counts of possession of marijuana with intent to dis-tribute, which had been dropped at a preliminary hearing.

Brooke Hedrick, an Amherst County deputy, testified at an earlier hearing that she spent the 2006-2007 school year working undercover to investigate complaints about drugs at the school.

Rose, who led the Lancers to back-to-back state titles, was not a target of her investigation, Hedrick said. She said the two had never had a conversation until he approached her in the school parking lot on April 29.

She testified that he asked, “‘Were you looking for some today?’ meaning drugs.”

Shortly afterward, she testified, Rose sold her half an ounce of marijuana in the McDonald’s parking lot off U.S. 60 within 1,000 feet of Amherst Elementary School. He did it again on May 7, she said.

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.

Rose is set for trial on Jan. 21. He is free on bond.