Former head of Boston’s police union indicted on additional child sex charges

Earlier this month 66-year-old Patrick M. Rose, a retired Boston Police Officer and former president of the Boston Police Patrolman's Association was arrested on multiple charges including rape and abuse of a child aggravated by age difference; enticement of children; disseminating obscene matter to a minor; open and gross lewdness; and five counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under age 14.

At his initial arraignment August 13 at the West Roxbury Division of Boston Municipal Court he entered a plea of not guilty and his bail was set at $100,000.  A state law precludes him from being held without bail.

“If we could, we would,” Suffolk County District Attorney Audrey Mark said.

The initial charges he faced stemmed from a single victim, a relative of Rose, coming forward to report abuse on August 2 which allegedly dates back to the 1990s when the girl was between the ages of 7 and 12 years old.  The Boston Globe reports that due to Rose's history in law enforcement, prosecutors chose to have the matter investigated by another law enforcement agency.

The same day that the victim went to law enforcement, he is reported to have sent an email to his family which Mark states is a confession.

In that email, Rose wrote that he was "mentally all effed up" and that he "should have left you all years ago when this started."  The email is said to continue by saying, "I know there's not enough love in this world for you to forgive the monster I truly am."

Rose's defense attorney William Keefe stated that it is not a confession as there is no reference to any of the crimes Rose has been accused of.

With this new information, Judge Kathleen Coffey saw fit to increase his original cash bail amount to the $250,000 the prosecution had originally requested, and left in place the additional conditions for his release should he be able to post bail.  Those additional requirements are that Rose wear a GPS monitor, surrender his passport, surrender any firearms as well as his license to carry, and have no unsupervised contact with any child under 16 or any contact whatsoever with any of the victims.

August 25th Rose was indicted again on 16 additional charges resulting from four additional victims that have come forward alleging abuse.  Those new charges include 11 counts of child rape and five of indecent assault on a child under the age of 14.  He has continued to plead not guilty to the charges against him.

His total bail now sits at $270,000 and he remains in custody.  According to Keefe, Rose will not be able to post bail as he is low on cash and the only way to acquire the funds required would be to borrow against his home.  In order to do that, his wife would have to agree.

"They're explicit that they're not cooperating with him."

Keefe has additionally stated that due to the statute of limitations, "It's not entirely clear that all of these cases are going to be viable going forward."

Mark has asserted that there is plenty of evidence to proceed stating that the statute of limitations for child rape is 27 years so long as there is corroborating evidence.  Additionally, some of the victims are asserting that they were abused within the last few years as two of them are reported to still be children.

"There is nothing more horrible and depraved than sexually abusing a child, and in this case it is made even more unfathomable that the defendant is a former member of law enforcement," Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins said. "He actually swore an oath to protect victims from harm, instead he was preying on and harming our most vulnerable and innocent, young children."

This is still an active and ongoing investigation and anyone with information concerning Rose is asked to call the Suffolk County State Police Detectives Unit at (617) 727-8817.

Rose is due back in court on September 23.