Derrick Rose Testifies He Suspected Rape Allegations Soon After Act
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The night after Derrick Rose and two of his friends had sex with his ex-girlfriend, he had a hunch she was going to claim they raped her, the NBA star testified Tuesday.
Rose said he became suspicious of the woman when she texted later the same day of the alleged attack in August 2013 to say how inebriated she had been and to describe burns she claimed she got on her hands from a fire pit outside his Beverly Hills house. Rose said he believed she was sober and never witnessed any burns the night before.
"It looked like a setup," Rose said. "It turned out to be what I thought."
Rose was testifying for a second day in the $21.5 million lawsuit that claims he and his friends had sex without the woman's consent when she was incapacitated from drinking and, possibly, drugs.
The woman claims the three entered her apartment and had sex with her while she was blacked out after drinking tequila at Rose's rental house earlier.
Rose said the woman was sober and he assumed consent based on their past, a text message she sent out of the blue that morning saying he made her "horny" and her behavior throughout the day and night.
Rose testified he was raised by a single mother, who was his mentor and had taught him to respect women.
Attorneys for the woman showed video taken of Rose in June testifying at his deposition in which he said he didn't understand the word consent.
When asked by his own lawyer, he said he was nervous at the deposition and he defined consent as both parties being in agreement. He said the woman had consented all the previous times they had sex over an 18-20 month period.
Although they had split up a couple months before, he said he took her suggestive text the morning of Aug. 26 as offering consent.
"When she sent me texts like that 99 percent of the time it ended up in sex, so what do you expect?" he said.
The Associated Press is not naming the woman because it generally does not identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault.
Rose was expected to wrap up his testimony in the afternoon.
The trial is proceeding even as a judge considers a declaring mistrial after criticizing the plaintiff's lawyers as "unbelievably careless" in production of exhibits.
Rose's lawyers asked U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald to declare a mistrial because they had not been given three text messages important to their case until Friday, when Rose was on the witness stand.
Fitzgerald, who used the phrase "unbelievably careless" several times, said it was not a frivolous matter and he told the lawyers to prove the texts had been disclosed.
"You have been very careless with the exhibits," Fitzgerald said. "I was not happy about it."
The judge said that if there is a mistrial it would push a new trial into the NBA regular season.
Rose testified that he has permission from New York Knicks President Phil Jackson to miss the next three preseason games until the trial is concluded.
The texts at issue were sent by the woman to Rose. The defense lawyers said they happened to be looking at exhibits handed to them in a binder Friday and noticed texts that hadn't been disclosed before the trial.
The judge did not indicate when he would rule on the mistrial request.
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