NBA star Derrick Rose on rape lawsuit: ‘I will be proven innocent’
Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose, shown in an April 23, 2015, game in Milwaukee, is accused in a lawsuit of drugging and raping a woman in Los Angeles in 2013.
A civil lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court this week accuses NBA star Derrick Rose of participating in the drugging and gang-rape of a woman in downtown L.A.
The lawsuit accuses the Chicago Bulls star and two of his assistants of drugging a woman with whom Rose had a fleeting relationship when she visited him and his friends at a home in Beverly Hills.
Feeling ill from the drug, allegedly placed in a drink with tequila, the woman claims in her suit that a friend helped her get to her downtown Los Angeles apartment, where she passed out on her bed.
But the next morning, Aug. 27, 2013, Rose and his friends showed up at her apartment complex and, while she was still in and out of consciousness, gang-raped her, the suit alleges.
In court documents, the woman said she woke up two days after the attack late for work, and found herself covered with lubricant and still clothed, with used condoms strewn around the room. She wasn’t sure what happened but showered and rushed to work.
The incident affected her work to the point where she was fired, the suit claims. She did not initially report the rape to police or tell her family out of embarrassment, fear of what the men might do to her in retaliation and because she pitied Rose, who she felt went along with the attack to impress his friends.
In a statement issued to the Los Angeles Times by a publicist, Rose said he is “focusing on staying healthy and getting ready for the season.”
He added: “I am not going to comment other than to say: I know the truth, and am confident I will be proven innocent.”
His attorney, Mark Baute, acknowledged in a statement to The Times that Rose and the woman had a lengthy sexual relationship, but said that the allegations in the suit were “completely false and without any factual basis.”
“This is nothing more than a desperate attempt to shake down a highly respected and successful athlete,” the statement read. “Mr. Rose was in a non-exclusive, consensual sexual relationship with the plaintiff for over two years. The plaintiff expressed no complaints about Mr. Rose until various lawyers began to surface and demand that the plaintiff be paid millions of dollars. This is the third lawyer the plaintiff has retained in this matter.
“Two years have passed since Mr. Rose ended the consensual relationship with the plaintiff, and her claims are as meritless now as they were two years ago. We have complete confidence that the case will be dismissed and that Mr. Rose will be vindicated. This lawsuit is outrageous.”
The woman is identified as Jane Doe in the suit. She is seeking unspecified damages in the alleged attack.
According to the court filing, Doe and Rose began a relationship after meeting at a party in 2011. They began exchanging text messages, which graduated to dinners and romance.
“Jane was drawn to Rose because he was reserved, quiet, and shy, which made him seem ‘safe’ for her to talk to,” according to the lawsuit. “Rose and [Doe] discovered they had many things in common: for example, they were both the ‘babies’ of their families, they both had protective parents who had hovered over them their whole lives, and they both did not enjoy the limelight.”
The Beverly Hills Police Department said it is not conducting an investigation into the rape allegations, according to a department spokesman.
For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna.
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