UNHAPPY CAMPER
Derrick Rose tried to get a sexual assault civil case against him thrown out, but his request was denied this week and the new Knicks point guard is headed to trial.
The trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 4 in Los Angeles, coinciding with the start of Knicks training camp.
A former girlfriend of Rose accused him and two friends of drugging and gang-raping her, allegations which came forth in August 2015, nearly two years after the alleged assault.
According to official documents published by The White Bronco, the reason California district court judge Michael W. Fitzgerald denied Rose’s motion for a summary judgment is because it remains in question whether the accuser, referred to as “Jane Doe,” consented to sex on Aug. 27, 2013.
Rose, acquired from the Bulls in a trade on June 22, can settle the case out of court before the trial begins, but for now he would miss part of his first Knicks preseason camp.
“This is not a rape case,” Rose said in a May filing. “It’s pure and simple extortion by a plaintiff who does not want anyone to be deposed because every lay witness in the case will shred [the] plaintiff ’s story.”
Rose’s legal team says he and the woman were in a relationship for 20 months, and argue that text messages from before and after the alleged incident show the woman communicating lucidly enough to give consent.
“Plaintiff ’s ability to send text messages after she left the Beverly Hills residence does not establish as a matter of law that she was able to consent to sex,” the court order states.
According to sports lawyer Dan Werley, Rose did win motions to exclude or limit the plaintiff ’s expert witnesses and to separate the punitive damages aspect of trial.