AG Healey 'glad to see' former police union president plead guilty in child sex abuse case

Attorney General Maura Healey said she was “glad to see” Patrick Rose Sr. plead guilty to charges related to the molestation of six children. The disgraced former president of the Boston Police Patrolman’s Association was sentenced Monday to a maximum 13 years in prison for the crimes, which occurred during his career on the force.

“My heart goes out to the victims and the survivors here. It is a really sordid chapter,” Healey said Monday on GBH’s Boston Public Radio.

As far back as 1995, top officials at the Boston Police Department were aware that then-officer Rose had likely abused a 12-year-old child. He faced only slight repercussions but remained on the force and eventually led the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union, until his 2018 retirement. He was arrested in 2020.

Healey’s response was followed by questions about the veil of secrecy surrounding the case, both for the decades Rose was on the force and in the year after a Boston Globe report revealed Boston Police Department officials who knew of Rose’s crimes and did nothing. Then-Mayor Marty Walsh refused to disclose information surrounding the case before leaving office, while his interim successor, Kim Janey, offered scant details saying she wanted to protect victims.

“I hope that reforms are gonna be undertaken there, I think that that is still under way and happening,” Healey said. “Obviously we need to make sure that everything is done … to make sure that victims and survivors are comfortable coming forward, that actions are taken appropriately, that there’s always accountability.”

She pointed to her work in establishing the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, a key element of the Police Reform Bill signed into law by Gov. Charlie Baker in 2020. That group, which has been in place since April 2021, exists to create a certification process for officers and systems for decertification and suspension following misconduct.

“Don’t know that we’ve gotten to the bottom of understanding exactly how and why,” Healey said of the Rose case. “But that can never happen again.”