The former head of Boston’s police union was sentenced to up to 13 years behind bars after he admitted he raped and sexually abused six children.
Ex-Police Patrolmen’s Association boss Patrick Rose, 67, pleaded guilty to 21 counts involving victims between the ages of 7 and 16 in a case that sparked criticism that the former cop’s abuse was swept under the rug by the department.
Rose, whose crimes spanned a 27-year period, had been accused of sex abuse in the 1990s but was allowed to stay on the job for two more decades even after an internal investigation found he likely committed a crime.
Rose cried in court Monday as some of his victims delivered impact statements.
“I saw you for what you really are – a coward, a predator of the weak and defenseless,” one victim said.
Another said Rose’s 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?”
The former union boss apologized for his “despicable behavior” in a statement read in court, where he was sentenced to at least 10 years in prison.
“I apologize to my former colleagues,” he said. “I apologize to my former friends, but more importantly, the more important thing in my life, I apologize to my family. To those I hurt, I’m so very sorry.”
Rose, who served as union president from 2014 until his retirement in 2018, was arrested in August 2020 on accusations he sexually assaulted a relative for five years beginning when she was 7 years old, NBC Boston reported.
Five other victims stepped forward in the aftermath, but Rose initially denied the charges and pleaded not guilty, the station said.
Documents released last year of a 1996 internal police department probe showed that top officials concluded Rose likely sexually abused a child yet he continued to patrol in Dorchester and interact with children and sex-abuse victims, masslive.com reported.
District Attorney Kevin Hayden said Monday he hoped the guilty plea provided “some level of healing and recovery” for the victims.
“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.”
With Post wires