Former part-time Liverpool Police Officer Peter Rauch — who was driving a county car that hit and killed teenager Seth Collier on North Salina Street in Syracuse on March 21, 2017 — appeared before a parole board July 16. The panel denied Rauch’s request for release from state prison in November.
Rauch pleaded guilty Sept. 8, 2017, in Onondaga County Court to causing the fatal accident while he was intoxicated.
He began serving his sentence in the Woodbourne Correctional Facility in Sullivan County in November 2017. If he’s denied parole, Rauch, who turned 40 years old on May 8, could spend up to six years in prison.
Judge Stephen Dougherty sentenced Rauch to two to six years in prison after he pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter and leaving the scene of the crash, both class D felonies. The early-morning accident occurred as Collier was walking from his job at the Burger King on Seventh North Street, in the town of Salina, to a friend’s house on the city’s Northside.
A thorough investigation showed that Rauch had consumed 16 alcoholic drinks at three different taverns the night before the 1:30 a.m. crash. Rauch, who rented an apartment on Kirkpatrick Street, a few blocks from the crash site, fled the scene after the accident and was finally found the following day at his family’s home in Liverpool.
In its published decision denying Rauch’s parole, the board pointed out that his status as a criminal-justice professional made his crime particularly “horrendous.” His next parole hearing in two years will probably require release unless Rauch is cited for bad behavior behind bars.
For now, however, the parole board ruled that Rauch couldn’t be trusted to remain a law-abiding citizen, remained a danger to the community and that his role as a former law-enforcement official made what he did worse.
The parole board did note that since being incarcerated in 2017, Rauch’s behavior had behind bars has been exemplary, but that alone wasn’t enough to win release.
He will get his next chance at parole in July 2021. If denied parole at that time, Rauch would have an opportunity for conditional release in November 2021 under a process that takes into account good behavior in prison and participation in prison programs.
Liverpool Police Chief Don Morris had suspended Rauch on the day of the accident, but after receiving investigative reports from the Syracuse Police Department he fired the part-timer three days later.
Rauch made $46,064 working for the Onondaga County District Attorney’s office in 2016 and earned $7,739 working part-time for the LPD.
Bo’s boo-boo
Meanwhile, another law-enforcement official from Liverpool was suspended by the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office on July 8. That day, Deputy Bo Watson, 27, was charged with two misdemeanors — promoting prison contraband and official misconduct.
Investigators say he smuggled a cellular telephone into the Corbett Justice Center on several occasions. Watson, who has been a custody deputy for four years, has been suspended without pay as stipulated by state Civil Service procedure. He was scheduled to appear in the City of Syracuse Court on Aug. 1.
Hurst honored
County Executive Ryan McMahon appeared in person to deliver a county proclamation recognizing the 100th birthday of legendary Liverpudlian Ken Hurst, at a reception for the centenarian hosted by American Legion Post 188, on July 6.
Representing the village of Liverpool Police Chief Don Morris also presented Ken with a proclamation that day, one day after Hurst’s actual birthday, July 5.
More than six dozen friends and family members turned out to congratulate Ken on his hundredth birthday, and they enjoyed a buffet served by Post 188 volunteers and its indefatigable commander, Ken Palmer.
Last word
“Two years is not nearly long enough when we have a lifetime without Seth, to never see him get married or have children…our hearts are shattered along with our lives this man does not deserve to be free after only two years.”
–Lisa Collier, mother of hit-and-run accident victim Seth Collier.
