Amanda Boshey

REGIONAL — The man accused of killing Bois Forte band member Amanda Boshey in a December hit-and-run incident on the Vermilion sector of the Bois Forte reservation will face stiffer possible penalties after federal prosecutors filed new charges against him earlier this month.
Boshey was found motionless lying in the snow near Fortune Bay Resort and Casino the evening of Dec. 17, and authorities were quickly able to use surveillance footage from the casino and the Y-Store to identify Eric Scott Peterson, 50, of Virgina, as the owner of the truck that likely struck Boshey.
They executed a search warrant at his residence early the next morning, finding damage on his truck consistent with evidence found at the scene of the accident and on the Y-Store surveillance video, according to police. A preliminary breath test administered at around 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 18, well beyond the two-hour window typically used to determine legal intoxication under Minnesota law, returned a blood alcohol content of .048.
Peterson was initially charged in January in Minnesota U.S. District Court with two federal counts of involuntary manslaughter, and prosecutors later amended the charges to a single count of involuntary manslaughter in May.
But on July 1, they filed a new superseding indictment against Peterson. Invoking the Assimilative Crimes Act, which allows federal prosecutors to apply state criminal law on reservation land when a corresponding federal statute does not exist. Peterson has now been charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide, per Minnesota statute.
The first count, criminal vehicular homicide - under the influence, emphasizes negligent operation of a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, but does not specify a BAC level. The second charge does include BAC, alleging that Peterson committed the hit-and-run “while having an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more as measured within two hours of the time of driving.”
To meet the standard specified in state law for the second charge, prosecutors are expected to use expert testimony to estimate what Peterson’s BAC would have been at the time of the incident, a technique known as retrograde extrapolation. Such evidence is admissible in court but will likely be challenged by the defense.
Under the involuntary manslaughter charge, Peterson faced a maximum sentence of eight years and an unspecified fine. Minnesota’s criminal vehicular homicide law carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and a maximum fine of $20,000.
Peterson is scheduled to be arraigned on the new charges on July 25.