Derrick Rose rape allegations: NBA star calls civil suit “completely false”

NBA All-Star and former MVP Derrick Rose has responded to a shocking lawsuit in which he and two friends are accused of drugging and gang raping an ex-girlfriend of Rose’s. News of the Derrick Rose rape allegations broke late Wednesday night, and, though details were initially slim, what we did know was disturbing.

According to the plaintiff–known only as “Jane Doe” in the civil suit–Derrick Rose and two of his friends “slipped a drug into her drink” while she and another friend visited Rose at his Beverly Hills home. The plaintiff claims the three men then tried to rape her. She was able to flee, and return home, but, according to Doe, Rose and his friends pursued her, broke into her apartment, and raped her there.

Lisa Cohen, Derrick Rose’s lawyer, flatly denied all of the lawsuit’s claims in a strongly worded statement. CBS Chicago went so far as to say the statement “indicate[s]…a money grab”:

 

The plaintiff’s allegations are completely false and without any factual basis. This is nothing more than a desperate attempt to shake down a highly respected and successful athlete. 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.

 

Over the past several days, more details from the Derrick Rose rape lawsuit have emerged: perhaps the biggest piece of information is that we now know Jane Doe is not Derrick Rose’s ex-girlfriend Mieka Reese. Reese and Rose dated for several years before breaking up in October of 2013; the pair had a son together, Derrick Jr., who was born in October of 2012. According to the lawsuit, Jane Doe didn’t know Rose had a son until she heard him talking to another individual about Derrick Jr. in May of 2013, three months before the alleged drugging and rape.

The lawsuit further claims that Doe felt comfortable around Rose because “he was reserved, quiet, and sky, which made him seem ‘safe.'” The pair met at a party Rose threw at his house in October of 2011, during the NBA lockout. They “met” around twelve times that year; a further ten times in 2012, and approximately five times in 2013.

As for the purpose of the Derrick Rose rape lawsit itself, Jane Doe is seeking “an award of money judgment for mental pain and anguish and severe emotional distress” in the form of “a civil penalty in the sum of $25,000,” and “additional relief as determined by a judge.”

WGN legal analyst Micke Monico recently spoke regarding the merits of the Derrick Rose rape allegations and the ensuing civil claims. According to WGN, “the case seems thinly based on accusations without a lot of facts[,] and the timing of case raises some serious questions.” In Monico’s own words, the suit contains a lot of “unnecessary sexual detail,” and could indeed be little more than an attempt at embarrassing Rose.

Said Monico, “It’s a very, very thinly based case, it seems to me.”

 

(Photo credits: Derrick Rose via WENN)