Mayor promises change after scandal over retired police officer
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BOSTON (WBZ) — Acting Boston Mayor Kim Janey is responding to criticism after she released redacted files about a former police officer accused of child sexual abuse.
“That would not happen under my watch,” Janey said. She was talking about disturbing new information showing Patrick Rose kept his job for decades after he was accused of sexually assaulting a child.
Rose enjoyed a long police career, and even became head of the Boston Police union. He now faces 33 charges involving a half-dozen alleged victims.
“Sadly the public files reveal, seemingly, that it was more important to protect one of their own, than to protect children,” said Mayor Janey at a news conference Thursday. She’s giving the attorney for the new Office of Police Accountability and Transparency 45 days to review how internal police investigations like this are done. “What is important moving forward is that we understand the process, and how that could have been.”
Documents just released at Janey’s request show a 1995 criminal complaint alleging then-officer Rose molested a 12-year-old, and that internal affairs found sufficient evidence to back it up. Still, he stayed on the job.
The Boston Police commissioner at that time was Paul Evans, who put out a joint statement this week with his former superintendent.
“The inability to present witness testimony or other admissible evidence resulted in the Boston Police Department’s inability to proceed to a disciplinary hearing,” it said. Without victim testimony, they say they did all they could.
“We will not re-victimize survivors in this case,” said Janey. “This is not about pointing fingers. This is about understanding what happened in the process.”
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