Former Boston police union boss pleads guilty to child rape and abuse charges
by Brooke Kaufman
According to the New York Post, former Police Patrolmen’s Association head Patrick Rose, 67, pleaded guilty to 21 counts of child rape and sexual abuse. The crimes spanned a 27-year period and involved victims between the ages of 7 and 16. On April 25, Rose was sentenced to up to 13 years in prison.
Rose had been accused of sex abuse in the 1990s but was allowed to keep his job for over two decades despite an internal investigation uncovering evidence that he likely committed a crime.
Victim impact statements read at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston called Rose a “coward, a predator of the weak and defenseless” and said his reputation was “absolutely gone.”
“All you will ever be remembered as is another creep who has nothing going for him,” the victim said. “Your job as a cop protecting people? [Well] that’s really quite ironic isn’t it?”
Rose, who was sentenced to at least 10 years in prison, apologized in court for his “despicable behavior,” saying, “to those I hurt, I’m so very sorry.”
He served as union president from 2014 until his retirement in 2018. According to NBC Boston, he was arrested in August 2020 on sexual assault charges after a relative alleged Rose abused her for five years beginning when she was just 7 years old. Five other victims came forward, but Rose initially denied the accusations and pleaded not guilty.
Documents from a 1996 internal police department probe that were made public last year show that top officials “concluded” Rose likely committed sexual abuse against a child. Despite this, reporting from MassLive says Rose continued to patrol in Dorchester and interact with children as well as sexual abuse victims.
In court, District Attorney Kevin Hayden said he hoped Rose’s guilty plea would offer the victims “some level of healing and recovery.”
“Anyone who was in that courtroom today knows the tremendous courage, fortitude and bravery that they withstood throughout this entire horrible incident,” Hayden said in a statement. “These are monstrous, monstrous acts.”
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