NBA star is accused of part in rape
Lawsuit says Derrick Rose was among three who drugged, sexually assaulted a woman in downtown L.A. 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 previous relationship when she visited him and his friends at a home in Beverly Hills.
The woman contends in her suit that she felt ill from the drug, apparently placed into a drink with tequila, and that a friend helped her get to her downtown Los Angeles apartment, where she passed out on her bed.
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, and used condoms were 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 says. 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, the suit says.
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 previous 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.”
A Beverly Hills police spokesman said the department is not conducting an investigation into the rape allegations.