Ex-Erie Rise bus driver, who had a prior record, found guilty in incident with a student

A split verdict in a sexual assault trial has added to the legal problems for the former head of transportation at the shuttered Erie Rise — and possibly created more legal woes for what remains of the charter school.

The defendant, Peter D. Boose, 62, was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old female Erie Rise student on a school bus in December 2022, about six months before Erie Rise closed. Boose, who drove the school bus as part of his job, at the time was on parole from a lengthy sentence for a burglary conviction.

On Monday, a jury in Erie County Common Pleas Court convicted Boose of one of the four charges against him — endangering the welfare of a child as a first-degree misdemeanor.

The panel was unable to reach a verdict on the three other charges — the first-degree felony of statutory sexual assault, the third-degree felony of sexual contact with a student and the first-degree misdemeanor of corruption of a minor. Judge John J. Mead declared the jury deadlocked, leading to a mistrial on the three counts.

Testimony in the trial lasted two days. The jury of six men and six women delivered its verdict after deliberating about an hour on Friday and a little less than four hours on Monday.

Mead set sentencing for Aug. 5 on the endangerment count, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in state prison. District Attorney Elizabeth Hirz, who prosecuted the case, said she will decide later whether to retry Boose on the other three counts.

Could Erie Rise get sued over Boose's conviction?

No matter what Hirz decides and no matter what sentence Mead imposes, Boose is facing the potential of a lengthy prison stay because of his prior record.

And no matter what happens to Boose in criminal court, the Erie Rise Leadership Academy Charter School could be sued over the sexual assault case, a consultant for Erie Rise said at a recent court hearing over the charter school's drawn-out financial dissolution.

The school has been the focus of unrelated investigations and court actions since it shuttered its academic operations a year ago after the Erie School District revoked its charter due to poor student performance and other concerns. Erie Rise had enrolled about 300 students in kindergarten through eighth grade in a building at West 10th and Cascade streets.

The U.S. Department of Education and the state Ethics Commission are conducting probes, according to testimony in the dissolution case. Those investigations are not tied to Boose's case.

Boose's arrest while on parole could create issues

In Boose's case, his new conviction could deny him parole and keep him in state prison until he is in his mid-80s.

When he was arrested in the sexual assault case in March 2023, Boose was on parole for a sentence he received in Erie County Common Pleas Court in August 1998. He was sentenced after he pleaded guilty to committing as many as 30 house burglaries in Erie's Little Italy neighborhood in 1997 and 1998. Boose said he broke into the houses to steal goods that he fenced to get money for drugs.

Boose was initially sentenced to 24 to 56 years in state prison, though the final term was 19 to 50 years, according to state prison records. The records show the adjusted sentence made Boose eligible for parole on Dec. 8, 2016, and put the expiration date of his maximum prison sentence at Dec. 8, 2047.

The state Parole Board paroled Boose on Dec. 8, 2016, according to the prison records. Close to five years later, in September 2021, Erie Rise hired Boose.

Why did Erie Rise hire Boose when he was on parole?

His first job was maintenance manager and then he became head of transportation and drove a bus, Erie Rise's human resources director, Aubrey Favors, testified at Boose's trial in the sexual assault case.

Favors did not testify about why Erie Rise hired Boose. Neither Favors nor a lawyer for Erie Rise, Zainab Shields, of Philadelphia, immediately responded to emails from the Erie Times-News about the trial and Boose's past.

The jury in the sexual assault trial did not hear evidence about Boose's prior record. That evidence was not relevant because it was not related to the charges at issue in the new case.

The new charges affected Boose's parole, however.

Prison records show Boose was removed from parole and returned to the state prison system on May 9, 2023, about two months after Erie police charged him in the sexual assault case on March 16, 2023. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections cited the new charges against Boose when asked why he was removed from parole.

Boose could stay in state prison for the maximum sentence in the burglary case if he is denied parole in light of the endangerment conviction, which could add to his overall sentence. Boose will be 86 when his maximum sentence expires in the burglary case on Dec. 8, 2047.

Boose showed little reaction as he heard the verdict on Monday and as he was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs and back to prison on a parole detainer.

His lawyer, Justin Smith, thanked the jury.

"We appreciate the jury's time and effort in reaching the verdict," he said in an interview.

Smith declined to comment on the effect the conviction could have on Boose's parole.

Hirz said she would meet with the victim and her family before she decides whether to undertake a retrial against Boose on the three charges on which the jury was deadlocked.

What were the allegations in the criminal case?

The case against Boose stemmed from allegations that he had sexual intercourse with the 14-year-old girl in the back of an Erie Rise school bus on Dec. 14, 2022.

Boose was the driver of the bus. He was accused of assaulting the girl as the two were alone on the bus after he had dropped off the Erie Rise girls' basketball team for an away game against the team for the Robert Benjamin Wiley Charter School at a gym on East Lake Road. The girl had traveled with the team, according to testimony.

The girl, now 15, was the main prosecution witness. She and her mother testified about how she reported the allegations against Boose to Erie Rise officials at a meeting at the school about her disciplinary issues on Feb. 16, 2023. Erie police received a ChildLine report the next day.

Boose did not testify. Evidence showed he denied the allegations in two interviews with the arresting officer, Erie police Detective Brian Barber.

Smith, Boose's lawyer, said the girl's testimony was inconsistent and that police lacked evidence to support her allegations. Smith said the girl accused Boose of assaulting her to divert attention from the disciplinary issues she was facing at Erie Rise.

"They didn't produce evidence here," Smith told the jury in his closing argument. "That is essentially what the evidence is — (her) testimony."

Hirz countered that the victim was credible and that she had no reason to concoct a story. Hirz urged the jury to convict Boose of all the charges based on the main evidence — the girl's statements to police.

"Sexual assaults are secret crimes," Hirz said in her closing argument. "There are not witnesses to these crimes."

Hirz said the victim never recanted once she made the accusations.

"She made that choice," Hirz said, "and she never turned back."

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com or 814-870-1813. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Former Erie Rise bus driver guilty of one count in sexual assault case