The former Oak Bluffs fire chief who was facing charges connected with a hidden camera in a teenage girl’s bedroom is being sued by the girl’s family.
The family filed a lawsuit against John Rose in Dukes County Superior Court in August, and is asking the court to award damages for emotional distress and invasion of privacy.
Mr. Rose, who led the Oak Bluffs fire department for seven years, was arrested in 2024 based on allegations that he secretly videotaped a woman while they had sex. Later that year the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s Office filed new charges connected to the woman’s 14-year-old daughter finding a recording device hidden in her bedroom.
The criminal case never went to trial and Mr. Rose was given 14 months probation in March after he entered a plea of admitting to sufficient facts for a guilty finding for two counts of attempt to commit a crime.
The daughter and mother filed the civil lawsuit with the Edgartown court in August, and asked for $1 million in damages for emotional distress, loss of privacy, loss of security and humiliation, according to court documents.
The family’s attorney, Bruce Bierhans, declined to comment on the case, which has not yet had an initial hearing. Mr. Rose’s attorney, Cass Luskin, also declined to comment.
According to the seven-page complaint, the daughter found a device in her bedroom in 2023, positioned toward the mirror in front of which she regularly changed her clothes. The daughter then brought the device to her mother and Mr. Rose, who were dating at the time.
The family claimed Mr. Rose said he didn’t know what the device was, and took it to examine it. But, according to the suit, he removed the device’s memory card unbeknownst to the woman and daughter.
The daughter believed the device to be a hidden camera, a fact that prosecutors and law enforcement later confirmed. When the girl raised the suspicion with her mother, the mom took her daughter from the home and brought her to her father’s house.
The mom reported the device to police, but not before Mr. Rose attempted to delay her from handing it over, saying he needed to speak with his attorney, according to the lawsuit.
Police later obtained a search warrant for Mr. Rose’s residence and said that the condition of Mr. Rose’s property indicated that he removed items from his residence and left in a hurry after learning of the police investigation.
Prosecutors during the criminal case said that it appeared Mr. Rose disposed of potentially incriminating evidence.
“Police searched Mr. Rose’s devices but found that many of the files had been deleted,” the family’s suit claimed. “Police received internet search history concerning methods for permanently deleting files or data from an electronic device.”
The civil suit contended that Mr. Rose placed the camera in the daughter’s room for the purpose of secretly viewing the daughter while she was changing her clothes.
Since the incident, the daughter has experienced anxiety and fear around her safety and privacy, humiliation arising from the incident becoming known and discussed in the community, and a loss of safety and security in places where she should reasonably expect privacy.
“Mr. Rose’s conduct was extreme and outrageous, beyond all possible bounds of decency, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community,” the suit read.
Mr. Rose was the Oak Bluffs fire chief from 2013 to 2020. He stepped down after the town settled a sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit against him. In that suit, a department administrator claimed she was harassed by Mr. Rose.
This article appears in October 9, 2026.