Disgraced Police Union President Pleads Guilty to Raping Children for Decades as Dept. Covered for Him

Free Thought Project – by Matt Agorist

Boston, MA — Last year, documents were released detailing the abuse and cover-up of said abuse carried out by Patrick M. Rose Sr., the former president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association and Boston PD detective. Rose was charged with molesting children, and the documents prove the department knew, and allowed him to continue to serve in their ranks and even engage with children.

Rose was originally charged with 33 counts in connection with the rape and abuse of at least six children in the 1990s. Some of the charges included statutory rape and indecent assault and battery on a child. This week, Rose pleaded guilty to rape charges involving the horrific and repeated rape of multiple young children.

“Some of these victims describe being sexually assaulted upwards of 200 times,” said Assistant District Attorney Audrey Mark.

Rose’s victims were sometimes 6, 7 or 8 years old, prosecutors said, and he raped the six victims in his West Roxbury home over the course of 30 years until 2020.

“By virtue of his position, he had their trust, and he violated it 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,” Mark said after the court listened to victim impact statements.

“I am so sorry to each and every one of you. Please try to accept that I am solely responsible, and not let your hatred destroy who you are or each other,” the disgraced police union boss said as he was shackled in the courtroom on Monday.

Unfortunately, despite the nature of his charges, Rose was only sentenced to 10-13 years in prison, followed by 10 years of probation.

“While there is no punishment or condemnation too severe for a man guilty of the atrocious crimes committed by Pat Rose, we hope today’s decision will bring with it some small level of comfort, closure and vindication for the victims and their families,” Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association President Larry Calderone said in a statement.

Absent from the guilty plea were any mentions of the documents which showed that his fellow cops allowed Rose’s abuse to go on for decades.

The documents were redacted copies of internal affairs investigations into Rose. Last year, Boston Mayor Kim Janey’s office said the information was released to shed light on the baffling case of how Boston’s top cop was allowed to go on abusing children for decades.

“It is appalling that there was a documented history of alleged child sexual abuse, yet this individual was able to serve out his career as an officer and eventually become the head of the patrolmen’s union for several years,” she said at the time. “Under no circumstance will crimes of this nature be tolerated under my administration, and we will not turn a blind eye to injustices as they arise.”

The evidence surfaced in 1995 when the Boston police department filed a criminal complaint against Rose for sexual assault on a 12-year-old boy. Despite the evidence, Rose managed to get the case against him dropped. An internal affairs investigation would later conclude that Rose indeed committed the crime, however, he kept his badge and remained a cop for the next 20 years — continuing to abuse children over the course of the following two decades.

As MassLive reports, even after Boston Police Department investigators informed then-Commissioner Paul F. Evans in 1996 that there was credible evidence supporting allegations that one of the department’s officers had sexually assaulted a child, that officer was allowed to keep his job, according to the documents.

Janey said it is “deeply unsettling and entirely unacceptable that Rose remained on the force for two decades,” enabling his ascent to the top of the police union.

“What’s more, Rose was allowed to have contact with young victims of sexual assault during the course of his career, and we now know that he allegedly went on to assault several other children,” Janey said, in a statement.

Rose’s fall from police grace began in August 2020 when a father and his daughter walked into the station to file a complaint against Rose. The father and daughter alleged that Rose repeatedly raped her from age 7 to age 12.

Empowered by the original girl’s courage, over the next several weeks, more victims came forward detailing horrifying abuse by Rose spanning the course of decades.

As the Boston Globe reported, Boston police fought to keep secret how the department handled the allegations against Rose, and what, if any, penalty he faced. Over the years, this horrific case has come full circle: The father who brought his daughter in last summer to report abuse by Rose was the boy allegedly abused at age 12 in the 1995 case. The department’s lack of administrative action back then may have left Rose free to offend again and again, from one generation to the next.

Indeed, not only did this child predator keep his badge, but as he moved up through the ranks, he was sent to respond to cases involving children.

“Based on a review of former officer Rose’s internal affairs file conducted by the City’s Law Department, it is clear that previous leaders of the police department neglected their duty to protect and serve,” Janey said. “Despite an internal affairs investigation in 1996 that found credible evidence to sustain the allegation against Rose for sexually assaulting a minor, it appears that the police department made no attempt to fire him.”

While the idea of a police department covering up horrific crimes against children is certainly shocking, it is par for the course — especially within the Boston police department.

Free Thought Project