Derrick Rose rape trial: NBA star says he interpreted a text message as consent

New York Knicks player testified in the $21.5m lawsuit that he interpreted an ex-girlfriend’s text message as consent to have sex with her later that night

NBA star Derrick Rose testified on Friday in a $21.5m lawsuit accusing him and two friends of raping his ex-girlfriend, saying he interpreted a text message from the woman as consent to have sex with her later that night.

The suit claims that the three men came to her apartment after an evening of drinking at Rose’s Beverly Hills mansion, and raped her while she was incapacitated.

Called to the witness stand by a lawyer for the woman, the New York Knicks player said they were split up when she texted him in August 2013 that he was the reason she “wakes up horny”.

Rose said he invited her over that night for drinks and expected sex would be involved. Attorney Waukeen McCoy asked Rose if he had specifically texted her to say he wanted to have sex. Rose said he did not.

Rose said the woman came to his Beverly Hills that evening, had a shot of tequila and began coming on to him. He said he rebuffed her and thought she was being too aggressive before one of his friends took her out of the room.

Rose said he later walked outside and saw his friend having sex with the woman, who pulled Rose over to join them.

After a short time, he returned to his room, Rose said.

McCoy also suggested Rose had no remorse about that night.

“I’m sensitive to it,” Rose replied, but added, “I feel I didn’t do anything wrong.”

No criminal charges have been filed against Rose or the other men, but Los Angeles police continued to investigate.

Earlier on Friday, the woman was under a second day of tough cross-examination, where the defense suggested she had sued for money.

“I didn’t wish him any harm, I wanted him to be accountable,” she said, denying she did it for money.

Defense lawyers pressed her to explain why the lawsuit was seeking $21.5m and how her first text messages to Rose after the incident were about being reimbursed for cab fare and a “sex belt” she had given him.

Like many of her answers over two days, many responses were vague, though she eventually said she brought up the money to get Rose to respond to her.

Lawyers for Rose presented text messages from the woman to a friend at a time when she was unemployed.

“I need a very wealthy man. We should go find one,” stated one text read by Mark Baute, Rose’s defense lawyer.

Baute also said that the woman sent a text to a roommate saying that since she had filed suit they would return their TV and upgrade to a plasma screen.

Rose, 28, and his friends Ryan Allen and Randall Hampton have denied the accusations in the lawsuit and claimed the woman willingly had sex with all three of them.

The Associated Press is not naming the woman because it generally does not identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault.

Her vague recall and testimony at times contradicted what she told lawyers during her deposition, and that left her vulnerable to combative cross-examination by the defense.

Rose watched the testimony while chewing gum but showed little reaction. Allen, an NBA hopeful cut by the Chicago Bulls in the 2012 preseason, huddled with lawyers and took notes.

In a soft voice that at times could not be heard by lawyers or jurors, the woman said she was intoxicated and felt like she had been drugged after a visit to Rose’s mansion in Beverly Hills in August 2013.

During cross-examination, she conceded that she never saw any drugs and she was never tested afterward. She didn’t have a rape exam performed and wasn’t tested for pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.

Rose’s lawyer used a string of text messages as a timeline to question the woman’s story and whether she even drank enough to black out hours later. And he questioned how she had managed to send lucid text messages during that period, several of which invited Rose to her apartment.

Baute got her to concede that she had lied to Rose in text messages earlier that day about plans she had and a stop at a sex shop she never made.

The woman testified that she began dating Rose on and off over 20 months, a relationship the defense has called “friends with benefits”, after meeting him during the 2011 NBA lockout at a Hollywood nightclub.

On Thursday, when Rose entered the courtroom, the woman paused and became emotional while being questioned by her attorney about the events on a night in August 2013.

Then, during a break in testimony, Baute objected to the woman’s amount of crying and asked the judge to order her to not cry.

The judge said he was unaware of courts that have ordered witnesses not to cry.

“I’m not going to order the witness not to cry any more than I’m going to order her not to breathe,” said US district judge Michael W Fitzgerald.

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