Rape accuser's attorney: Derrick Rose said he doesn't understand consent
The attorneys for plaintiff Jane Doe, who has alleged in a civil lawsuit that New York Knicks guard Derrick Rose and two of his friends raped her, hammered the point that Rose said in a deposition he did not understand the meaning of consent.
The attorneys — Waukeen McCoy and Brandon Anand — made that claim during a 90-minute teleconference in which Jane Doe also talked about the alleged rape and her desire for anonymity during the trial, which is set to begin Oct. 4 and last approximately eight days.
“When asked at his deposition, Mr. Rose did indeed not have any answer as to what consent means, and we believe that the record very clearly shows that he and his friends are sexual deviants who essentially decided they would have sex with the plaintiff no matter what,” Anand said. “His friends may have pushed this issue, but all three certainly knew that she was severely intoxicated, she could not consent and she would have never consented.”
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Near the end of the teleconference, McCoy read aloud a portion of that deposition.
Question: “Do you have an understanding as to the word consent?”
Rose: “No but can you tell me?”
Question: “I just wanted to know if you had any understanding.”
Rose: “No.”
McCoy also said Rose took his condom, put it back in the wrapper and took it with him “as if he was never there,” McCoy said.
“One of the malicious acts of the three of them is that they laughed about the fact Mr. Rose had his condom in the wrapper when leaving the apartment,” McCoy said. “Even the next day they laughed about it, and he testified to that in the deposition.”
The plaintiff, who is asking for $21.5 million, alleges Rose, Randall Hampton and Ryan Allen raped her on Aug. 27, 2013, in Beverly Hills. The defendants say the sex was consensual. Rose’s attorneys have accused McCoy of pandering to the news media.
It has been a nasty back-and-forth between the two sides. The plaintiff’s attorneys have accused the defense of painting their client as a sexual aggressor, and the defense has accused the plaintiff of trying to “tarnish Mr. Rose’s public image in an effort to extract a large extortionate payment from him.”
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“Mr. Rose is confident that the evidence of plaintiff’s consent will be clear once all the facts are heard. The plaintiff consented to sex each and every time they had sex during their twenty month relationship, including on the night that is the focus of this lawsuit,” Rose’s lawyers said in a written statement. “The salacious allegations of a woman who is now on a media tour — who also claims to not remember much from that night — do not change what transpired that evening, which was consensual intercourse between Mr. Rose and the plaintiff. The plaintiff’s ever-changing cast of lawyers is such that their latest strategy is to pander to the media with headline grabbing theories that bear no relationship to the actual evidence, because they mistakenly believe that such pandering will embarrass or intimidate Mr. Rose into a large and unwarranted settlement payment. The trial starts soon, and Mr. Rose looks forward to clearing his good name and moving past this unfortunate saga.”
Doe’s attorneys said they wanted to conduct a teleconference to refute untrue allegations that have surfaced in news reports.
Doe also explained why she wants to maintain anonymity during the trial, a decision a judge is expected to rule on next week.
“I don’t want to be seen as a victim or known as victim,” Doe said. “I don’t want people to know that it’s me. … I don’t feel safe. I don’t feel like I could be myself and be comfortable now. I can’t imagine how it would be if people knew how I was. I don’t want to drag my family through the suffering that I’ve been going through. I don’t want them to have to deal with that.”
She said anonymity allowed her to go forward with the civil lawsuit. No criminal charges have been filed. But Doe’s attorneys have been in contact with a detective from the sexual assault unit.
“It was frustrating that there was no action, and I frankly don’t know why there has not been,” Anand said. “Perhaps they are simply waiting to see what will come out of the civil case.”
The two sides have tried to mediate the case twice but failed to reach a resolution that satisfied all parties.
McCoy said the plaintiff is open to a settlement before the trial begins but accused defense attorneys of unprofessional behavior.
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“We’re always open to getting cases resolved before trial because trial is hard on all parties involved,” he said. “We’re always open, but when you have defense attorneys not being professional or respond to your emails and making these accusations at your client out in the public, which aren’t true, it’s really hard to get to that point of sitting down, logically going through the evidence and logically going through the damages and figuring out some resolution.”
Gaming and sports law attorney Daniel Wallach predicted on Twitter a settlement before the trial.
“This case settles,” Wallach tweeted. “Whatever the number is, D-Rose stands to lose much more just from the diminution in the value of his next contract.”
Wallach also tweeted, “Despite the animosity flowing from both sides, I still see the D-Rose case settling on the eve of trial. It may require a skilled mediator.”