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Files on Ex-Boston Police Officer Abuse Allegation to Be Released

Boston police have refused to release records pertaining to the 1995 case and it remains unclear what, if any, disciplinary action was taken against Patrick Rose at that time

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Case files on a former Boston police officer and union chief charged with molesting multiple children more than 25 years ago will be released by the end of the week as part of Mayor Kim Janey's police reform efforts.

"As mayor, the likes of Patrick rose will not be protected on my watch and those who are complicit in abuses of power will be held to account," Janey said.

Janey said she was baffled that Patrick Rose Sr., 66, a retired officer and the one-time president of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association -- charged with molesting multiple children -- reportedly first faced child abuse allegations back in the mid-1990s.

Rose has pleaded not guilty to 33 total charges involving six alleged victims and is being held on $200,000 cash bail.

Boston Mayor Kim Janey is ready to put $1 million towards an agency tackling police reform.

In a Tuesday announcement revealing several police reform measures aimed at boosting accountability and transparency, Janey said Rose's case would be the first task for her newly created Office of Police Accountability and Transparency.

She said an internal affairs file on Rose, redacted so it doesn't reveal identifying information about victims, will be released by the end of the week: "The victims of these appalling crimes must be protected, but transparency cannot wait any longer."

Rose was initially charged last August when 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.

The Boston Globe reported over the weekend that the Boston Police Department in 1995 filed a criminal complaint against Rose for sexual assault on a 12-year-old child.

The newspaper reported Tuesday that investigators at the state's child welfare agency, now the Department of Children and Families, believed in 1995 there was evidence that Rose had abused a child.

The criminal complaint was eventually dropped, but an internal investigation concluded that Rose likely committed a crime. He was allowed to stay on the force, and was often sent to respond to cases involving children.

Boston Mayor Kim Janey is discussing police reform amid allegations that the Boston Police Department covered up allegations of child rape against a former officer.

Boston police have refused to release records pertaining to the 1995 case and it remains unclear what, if any, disciplinary action was taken against Rose at that time.

"My client maintains his innocence to all of the charges that have been brought against him and he maintains his innocence to what was alleged to have transpired back in 1995," Rose's attorney, William J. Keefe, said.

The mayor is also expected to present her budget proposal for the coming fiscal year Wednesday, which will include a reduction in police overtime spending through a strategy that added 30 officers to the department.

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