August 4, 2005

Former Leland teacher pleads guilty to sex charges

Receives two-year, eight-month prison term; sentencing Aug. 26

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

Earl Thomas Roske, the Leland High School chemistry teacher accused of having sex with two minor female students, pleaded guilty Monday to six of seven sex crime charges.

Earl Thomas Roske

Deputy District Attorney Steve Fein said Roske received a sentence of two years and eight months in prison.

Roske, 41, was arrested May 6 and arraigned May 9 on seven felony charges for allegedly committing various sex crimes against minors including one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, two counts of oral copulation with a minor, two counts of using a minor to produce child pornography and two counts of sending harmful matter to a minor.

He pled guilty to all of the charges except the charge of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. Fein said additional victims didn’t come forward.

“He agreed to plead guilty to those charges for that amount of time in prison,” Fein said.

Roske remains in custody at the Santa Clara County jail. After he serves his prison term he will be on parole for a minimum of three years. He will be sentenced at 9 a.m. Aug. 26. Fein noted Roske would not be on probation but on parole, a conditional release from state prison that’s more restrictive, Fein explained.

“I’m satisfied with the case,” Fein said, noting that the victims were cooperative during the investigation.

Roske will also become a registered as a sex offender. Because he had no prior criminal record, he received a less severe sentence. The San Jose Unified School District is in the process of formally terminating his employment. He was placed on unpaid administrative leave soon after he was arrested.

Roske’s attorney, Christopher Schumb, did not return a phone call from the Almaden Times Weekly seeking comment.

The district turned over Roske’s personnel files to the police under subpoena orders last month. The files, one kept at the school and one kept at district headquarters, could include several complaints parents allege the school and the district received that went unanswered.

Police reports about Roske’s alleged sex crimes reveal that detectives learned school officials knew as early as August of 2002 of complaints against him.

San Jose police officers began investigating the teacher in April of 2004 when former Leland High School principal Susan Votaw contacted officers working with the School Safety Liaison Unit and alerted them that she had received an anonymous letter that year alleging Roske was having consensual and sexual relations with current and former students.

Detectives presented the evidence to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office, which could not prosecute the case due to insufficient evidence. During that investigation officers also learned that another anonymous letter had been sent in August of 2002. Those letters are expected to be in his personnel files confiscated by the police.

After hearing about Roske’s plea, one of his former chemistry students, who declined to be identified, said, “I’m not surprised he’s guilty.”