Derrick Rose again denies rape allegations, claims sex was consensual in court filing
Before suffering a fractured orbital bone around his left eye that will sideline him for an as-yet-undetermined period of time, Derrick Rose opened Chicago Bulls training camp by addressing — and once again forcefully denying — allegations made in a civil lawsuit filed this summer that he and two other men drugged a woman, broke into her apartment and raped her in 2013.
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From K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune:
Rose spoke publicly for the first time since his ex-girlfriend filed a civil suit in Los Angeles alleging he and two friends sexually assaulted her. General manager Gar Forman said the non-criminal legal situation won’t cause Rose to miss camp and offered support, calling Rose “part of our family.”
Reiterating a statement he released last month, Rose vehemently denied the civil complaint.
“It’s not true,” he said. “I can’t let one incident that’s not true affect the way that I live, and I’m not going to let it. I love my life actually, so I can’t complain about anything. I’ve just got to take this, use it as fuel and the season is around the corner.”
“I will be proven innocent, but at the same time, it hasn’t affected anything,” Rose added Monday. “I take it as motivation. I feel like the devil’s just working. I feel like I’m on the right track as far as where I want to be at in my life and the direction I want to go.”
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A civil complaint filed Aug. 26 in Los Angeles County Superior Court by a woman identified only as “Jane Doe” alleges that Rose and two of his longtime friends — Ryan Allen, the younger brother of Memphis Grizzlies guard Tony Allen, and Randall Hampton, “Rose’s best friend since grammar school,” identified in a December 2014 New York Times story as his manager — committed sexual acts against her will in August 2013.
From Patrick M. O’Connell of the Chicago Tribune:
The accuser met Rose at a party the basketball star hosted at his Los Angeles house during the NBA lockout in October 2011, according to the lawsuit. She was invited to the party by mutual friends. The two began a relationship a short time after the party, exchanging text messages, meeting for dinner and going out regularly. The woman said she was drawn to Rose because “he was reserved, quiet, and shy, which made him seem ‘safe,'” according to the lawsuit.
In the weeks after August 2013, the woman, who worked as an administrator for a property management company, said she became paranoid that Rose was monitoring her phone calls, according to the lawsuit.
But the suit does say she was reluctant to report the incident for fear of retaliation and because she had been in a consensual relationship with Rose. Trauma from the alleged assault led to emotional turmoil for the woman, according to the lawsuit, and she lost her job.
“As a direct consequence of these unlawful acts, plaintiff has suffered severe physical injury, emotional distress including post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as economic, consequential, and other damages,” the suit contends.
The lawsuit seeks “an award of money judgment for mental pain and anguish and severe emotional distress,” including “a civil penalty in the sum of $25,000” and additional relief as determined by a judge.
Rose’s public comments came four days after his attorney submitted a filing in the case — which has been transferred to U.S. District Court — claiming that Jane Doe “consented to group sex and became upset because she felt she should be reimbursed for a sex toy.” TMZ first reported the Rose filing.
The Associated Press has more:
An attorney for Rose also is accusing three of the plaintiff’s lawyers of making “extortionate and unprofessional demands” for payments by the point guard to the woman. Mark D. Baute made the allegation in a declaration in support of moving the suit to federal court. […]
In Baute’s filing on behalf of Rose, the 2011 NBA MVP denies the allegations and says the woman “consented to the actions she now claims were non-consensual.”
“The Plaintiff consented to sexual interaction with more than one co-defendant on more than one occasion, consented to sexual interactions on the day in question, and invited the defendants to her apartment and buzzed them in through security and opened the apartment door to welcome them, and then consented to additional group activities later that evening,” it reads.
Rose’s filing also says the woman “became upset a few weeks or months later because she felt she should be reimbursed for one of the sex toys she purchased and used during the day and night in question.” She also became upset with Rose for not being responsive enough to her text messages, according to the court document.
A scheduling conference in the case is set for Nov. 9, according to the AP.
Rose fractured the orbital bone surrounding his left eye after taking an elbow to the face during Chicago’s first day of practice, according to the Bulls. A timetable for his return to the court will be determined after Wednesday’s procedure.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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