City, state, union all knew Patrick Rose was raping children, yet did nothing to stop him as he climbed to become police union president, suit charges

Update: Case dismissed (decision linked at bottom of story).

Two people who lived with Patrick Rose as children who say he raped them repeatedly for several years and who say they were then shunted aside by fellow cops and officials even after they kept telling their stories today sued the city of Boston, the Boston Police Department, former BPD Commissioner Paul Evans, the Boston Police Patrolman's Association, Rose's successor as union president, several BPD supervisors and the state Department of Children and Families.

In their suit, filed in US District Court in Boston, the two, identified as John Doe and Jane Doe, along with the woman's husband, identified as James Doe, allege that for more than two decades, Rose got away with raping children - many of them, including them, his own relatives and many of them in his own home in West Roxbury - as BPD decided to ignore their complaints and internal-affairs investigations and to even reinstate Rose as a cop after the police union complained. The suit also alleges that DCF's predecessor agency did nothing even after being alerted about the abuse because Rose was a cop.

The suit identifies the two victims as the children of Rose's wife, Frances; one of their allegations:

DCF and DCF Defendants failed to remove John Doe and Jane Doe from the custody of Rose.

Rose pleaded guilty to multiple counts of child rape and related offenses last year and was sentenced to 10 to 13 years in prison.

John Doe alleges Rose abused him from the time he was 8 - in 1990 - until he was 14. He charges that when he was 12, in 1993, he went to police, who arrested Rose for indecent assault and battery on a child and placed him on administrative leave. Internal Affairs concluded Rose was a child rapist, as did DCF. But then Commissioner Paul Evans did not fire Rose, in fact, he ordered him reinstated after the BPPA complained, the suit says.

For the next 23 years, Rose worked as a police officer rising through the ranks of the BPD and the union, all the while continuing to sexually abuse John Doe. Due to the complete failure of the BPD and DCF, Rose was not terminated from the police department, and avoided criminal charges, incarceration, restraining orders, therapy, and child custody restrictions. Because the BPD and DCF did nothing, Rose was emboldened and escalated his abuse against John Doe and Jane Doe and extended the abuse to additional child victims.

The lawsuit alleges that some of the interviews other officers did of the children was in front of the Rose home, sometimes with Frances Rose present. And they charge BPD continued to cover for Rose even as late as 2021, three years after he was defeated in a bid to stay union president and he retired from the force, when the charges surfaced again.

In 2021, [Paul] Evans and [Internal Affairs Superintendent in Chief Anne Marie] Doherty continued their campaign to chill John Doe and Jane Doe’s substantive and procedural due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment by falsely representing to the public that “they did a complete and thorough investigation” and that “their hands were tied.”

The suit seeks damages, to be determined at trial. More immediately, the three plaintiffs are asking a judge to attach Rose's house and other property to ensure there is at least $1 million on hand "as security for the judgement the Plaintiffs expect to recover."