THE SIDELINES : Charities Pass on Pete Rose
Several area charities don’t want to be associated with Pete Rose now that he’s a convicted felon.
Sentencing for the former Cincinnati Reds manager is weeks away, but his guilty plea to felony tax charges has scuttled plans for him to work with several charity promotions.
“It was handled diplomatically, but they said they didn’t want to continue with Pete’s volunteering for them,” said Barbara Pinzka, Rose’s publicist. “None of them has any hard feelings. Some charitable organizations decided that despite the potential benefits of having Pete work with their organizations, they were concerned about negative publicity.”
The charity plans had been kept on hold until Rose’s tax case was settled. Rose ended a one-year federal investigation by pleading guilty April 20 to two counts of failing to report income, which carry a maximum combined jail term of six years and a possible $500,000 fine.
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