Waukee Schools COO Rose lawyer says charges won't stick

WAUKEE, Iowa -- The Waukee School District's COO Eric Rose is out on bond after being arrested on  three felony charges.

The charges come following a report from the Iowa State Auditor's office accusing the district of $130,000 in questionable spending.

According to Rose's attorney, Eric Rose turned himself in Saturday around 7 a.m. and was released on a $15,000 bond. He's charged with two counts of soliciting to commit a felony and one count of felonious misconduct in office. The Dallas County Attorney's office has yet to reveal why they believe they have enough evidence to file charges against Rose.  

Rose’s attorney Grant Woodard says the charges won't hold up.

“The truth always prevails. We think as people see what's actually occurred there, it will show my client Mr. Rose has done absolutely nothing wrong, and he will be exonerated at the end of when this makes it through the court system,” said Woodward.

In 2016, Rose was investigated by Waukee Police. They found Rose was keeping school property at his home and had been ordering school employees to run private errands for him, and was illegally altering their time cards. Waukee police felt they could have made an arrest, but the county attorney's office didn't believe they had enough evidence to make it stick in court.

Woodward says he is not concerned that charges were filed this time after the county attorney was less confident in 2016.

“Truth be told it really doesn't take much to get charges filed against someone in this state. We ourselves are sort of in the investigatory period of this ourselves, so we're seeing what evidence, if any, the state has against my client,” said Woodward.

The news of Rose's arrest and booking echoed through the school district.

“It was relieving in a way that there has been some progress as this story has been developing for all of us, but also I think it's just the tip of the iceberg,”  Waukee parent Roxi Bohaty tells WHO-TV Channel 13 News.

Bohaty says the recent developments have been weighing on the community.

“There's still a lot of intimate connections and personal connections and a lot of people have relationships with people on both sides of the story,” she said.

However, Bohaty says the district needs to get the situation resolved for everyone's benefit.

“There's a lot of mistrust right now, and we have a wonderful school district. It's got incredible teachers and principals and staff that result in an amazing education for our students, but recently there's been some decisions made on higher levels that have resulted in our community having a lot of doubt,” said Bohaty.

The school district has released a statement indicating they will hold a meeting on Monday to discuss Eric Rose's employment status.  He was placed on paid administrative leave following the release of the State Auditor's report.