Patrick Rose, Former Boston Police Union President, Sentenced To 10-To-13 Years On Child Rape Charges

BOSTON (CBS) – Patrick Rose, the former president of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, was sentenced to 10-to-13 years in prison Monday for molesting six children over a 27-year period.

Rose was facing 33 charges in connection with the rape and abuse of the children between the ages of 7 and 16 at his home in West Roxbury between 1993 and 2020. Twelve of those charges were dismissed Monday and Rose changed his plea to guilty in Suffolk Superior Court. He was also sentenced to ten years of probation and must register as a sex offender.

In 1995, a criminal complaint against Rose, now 67, accused him of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old child. An investigation sustained the allegation but Rose continued to work as a police officer. A new report, released last July, found that there was not a thorough and independent investigation into Rose in 1995. He returned to full duty after the police union threatened to sue and prosecutors said he went on to assault more children.

In August 2020, Rose was arrested after a father and his teenage daughter reported that the girl had been repeatedly molested by Rose from age 7 through 12. Within weeks, five more people came forward to accuse Rose of molesting them as children.

"I want to apologize for my despicable behavior. I apologize to my former colleagues. 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. I have received many gifts from God in my life, they're all called family. I was the luckiest man on the face of the earth, God blessed me with a loving wife, four beautiful, wonderful children, seven beautiful and wonderful grandchildren. No man could ask for more and I destroyed that family," Rose said as he addressed the court Monday. "Whatever happened in my life to shape who I was makes no difference. I am solely responsible for any wrong decisions that I made and any acts that I perpetrated. My heart breaks over and over."

He said he hoped the victims would heal and grow back together.

One victim statement read by a prosecutor said, "Nothing you can say or do will justify the horror we are going through. You took their childhood from them, from me."

"Out of respect for the family, you heard the facts, you heard the judge say that she believes it's a just sentence," Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden told reporters outside court, refusing to comment further on Rose's sentence.

"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," current union president Larry Calderone said in a statement.