Police apologize for rapist's escort

Mortified Boston Police officials apologized for providing a uniformed escort yesterday for the funeral of a convicted child rapist and said they would urge officers not to seek escorts for relatives with serious criminal records.

Under current policy, escorts are automatically provided for funerals of immediate family members of officers on the force. A brother of Mark Carey, whose funeral procession was escorted by two motorcycle officers from St. Monica's Catholic Church in South Boston to Cedar Grove Cemetery in Dorchester, is a current officer.

The grandmother of the girl raped by Carey, who was convicted in 1998 of assaulting her throughout her childhood, said she was shocked to see the escort.

``I went there to say, `Thank God, he is finally gone,' and when I pulled up and saw those police motorcycles with all their flashing lights stopping traffic . . . I was very upset," said the grandmother, whose identity the Globe is withholding to protect the victim's privacy. ``He doesn't deserve that, not on the dollar of the taxpayer. . . . To have him go out of this world like a hero, like he was a soldier from Iraq . . . it's a disgrace."

Police Superintendent Robert Dunford agreed, saying department officials are embarrassed by the episode and did not know they were providing an escort to a convicted child rapist.

``We had no idea of this. If we had, we would have contacted the officer and said, `Listen, we're not able to do this,' " Dunford said in an interview yesterday. ``Myself and the commissioner, we apologize for any unintended injury to this victim."

Dunford said the department routinely provides escorts to officers' deceased family members, but officers will now be asked not to take advantage of the perk for relatives with serious criminal histories. The department will not do criminal checks of the deceased, but will rely on officers' discretion, he said.

He said that providing funeral escorts is part of motorcycle officers' job descriptions and therefore does not cost taxpayers any extra for overtime or other costs.

Police guidelines on escorts state: ``Mobile Operations Patrol will assign two cycle officers to the funeral home to escort the funeral cortege to the church. Mobile Operations Patrol will escort the funeral cortege from the church to the cemetery. If the casket is covered by the American flag or the city flag, Mobile Operations Patrol officers shall fold it and give it to the police commissioner, or highest ranking member of the department in attendance, who shall present it to the family."

The victim's grandmother last night said she appreciates the department's swift response and said she received a phone call from Boston Police Deputy Superintendent Daniel Linskey yesterday morning shortly after the funeral.

But she said through tears that irreversible damage has been done despite the apologies. She said she and Carey both grew up in the Old Colony housing development in South Boston.

``All the people around there saw it," she said of the escort. ``Does that make my granddaughter a liar?"

She said her granddaughter has married and moved out of state, but is still haunted by the sexual abuse she experienced from age 9 to 18.

``My granddaughter to this day is under the care of a counselor," she said. ``She has nightmares. . . . This is such a terrible disgrace to me as a grandmother, a taxpayer, a citizen. Police should be getting these scums, these child molesters, off the street, not escorting them to their final resting place."

Suzanne Smalley can be reached at ssmalley@globe.com.