A former head of Boston’s police union pleaded guilty Monday to 33 charges stemming from the rape and abuse of six children over the course of several years beginning in the 1990s.
Patrick Rose had initially pleaded not guilty and maintained his innocence, but during a hearing in Suffolk Superior Court, he changed his plea. Over a 27-year period, he pleaded guilty to 21 counts of child rape and sexual assault and was sentenced to 10 to 13 years in prison, plus ten years of probation after his release.
Victim impact statements were delivered by a number of Rose’s victims.
One of the victims described the abuse as causing a “dead-soul feeling of emotional pain.” “I saw you for what you really are — a coward, a predator of the weak and the defenseless,” the victim said.
Rose, a former Boston police officer and president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, was arrested on child sex charges in August of 2020, following allegations that he sexually assaulted a young relative beginning when she was seven years old.
The assaults continued for five years, until the victim, now a teenager, turned 12 years old, according to police. Rose is accused of touching her inappropriately in his West Roxbury home and asking her to perform sexual acts on him.
Rose was later accused of raping and abusing five other children. The majority of the charges, according to prosecutors, date from the 1990s, but at least one occurred within the last two years.
Internal Affairs Report On Ex-Boston Police Officer Patrick Rose Released To Public (Apr 2021)
“He had these children’s trust from the beginning. He didn’t need to gain it. By virtue of his position, he had their trust,” Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Audrey Mark said in court Monday. “And he violated their trust over and over. He violated their bodies. And these children, and these adult survivors, will live with that trauma for the rest of their lives.”
Following the plea, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden expressed his hope that the case’s resolution will bring some relief to the victims.
“Anyone who was in that courtroom today knows the tremendous courage, fortitude and bravery that they withstood throughout this entire horrible incident,” he said. “These are monstrous, monstrous acts.”
Rose was kept on the force for years despite internal investigators finding evidence of him sexually assaulting a minor, according to documents released by the city last year.
Acting Mayor Kim Janey ordered the file released after The Boston Globe reported Rose kept his badge despite a 1995 criminal complaint for sexual assault on a 12-year-old child.
The criminal complaint was dropped, but the department’s Internal Affairs Division found evidence to support the allegations. The findings were sent to then-Boston Police Commissioner Paul F. Evans in a June 1996 memo.
Rose was stripped of his weapon and placed on administrative duty, but he was reinstated after an attorney for the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association threatened to file a grievance in October 1997.
A city assessment of the Rose investigation made recommendations for greater transparency. The Office of Police Accountability and Transparency recommended that officers charged with crimes be investigated within 48 hours and that clear guidelines be created for officer punishment.
