A Los Angeles judge refused Wednesday to declare a mistrial in the sexual assault lawsuit against NBA star Derrick Rose and two of his friends by a former girlfriend, finding that the plaintiff’s attorneys did not intentionally hide evidence.
Rose’s lawyers had moved to have U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald declare the trial — now in its second week — invalid, claiming they were not given, in a timely manner, three text messages the accuser allegedly sent to Rose which could be used to bolster the defense case.
Although Fitzgerald called the plaintiff lawyers “careless,” he found that any delay in providing the texts to the defense should not result in a mistrial.
The New York Knicks player, along with close friends Randall Hampton and Ryan Allen, were sued for what the 30-year-old plaintiff alleges was a pre- dawn gang rape at her downtown Los Angeles apartment while she was unconscious on Aug. 27, 2013. She is seeking $21.5 million in damages.
The defendants deny the allegations, claiming the woman invited them to her home and the sexual contact was consensual.
The accuser testified last week that she was so intoxicated that she has only “flashes” of memory of the alleged rape. She claims she did not invite the men to her residence and has no memory of how the three got into her building.
The three defendants have all testified that the woman invited them through texts and phone calls to visit her, and when they arrived, she opened the door and led them to her apartment.
When they arrived, the defendants said, the woman — whom Rose described as a frequent sex partner during their 18-month relationship — told the men to come to her bedroom “one at a time.”
Both Hampton and Allen testified Wednesday that the plaintiff was sexually aggressive — but sober — at a gathering hours before the alleged incident, when she gave the men lap dances and had sex with all three.
The woman, who said she had been drinking earlier in the day, claims she drank about three shots of tequila at the gathering at Rose’s rented Beverly Hills mansion, but began to feel unusually intoxicated before she was taken home by cab. She contends that at about 3 a.m., the three broke into her apartment and raped her.
But Allen told of late-night texts and calls exchanged between the woman and the men in which she told them to come to her apartment.
“She came and opened the door,” he said, telling jurors he could not recall the exact order in which the men had sex with her.
“I just know we had sex,” he said. “She was well aware of everything that was going on.”
Allen said he “couldn’t wait” to come to court and clear himself of the woman’s allegations.
The lawsuit was filed in 2015, two years after the alleged rape, and police were notified around the same time.
The plaintiff told the jury that she waited two years to file suit because she felt ashamed and embarrassed of what happened and was afraid her family would find out.
The Los Angeles Police Department has confirmed that they are looking into the woman’s allegations, but no criminal charges have been filed.
In an unusual twist, the court day began with news that an LAPD detective who was part of the team investigating the rape allegation had apparently committed suicide.
Nadine Hernandez, 44, was found dead of a single gunshot wound to the chest around 2:45 p.m. Tuesday in a home in Whittier, police said.
In testimony Tuesday, Rose said he had became suspicious of the plaintiff when she texted — later the same day of the alleged attack — to say how inebriated she had been and to describe burns she claimed she got on her hands from a fire pit outside his house.
Rose said he also believed she was sober that night and never saw the woman burn herself.
“It looked like a setup,” Rose testified of the text message. “It turned out to be what I thought.”
The judge said the central issue in the trial is whether consent was given, and a lawyer for the woman has repeatedly tried to show that she never agreed to have sex with Rose or his friends at her home.
Rose said he assumed he had consent based on their past relationship, a text message she sent early the previous morning saying he made her “horny,” and her allegedly sexually aggressive actions at the get-together in Beverly Hills.
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.”
Questioned by his own attorney, Rose said he was nervous at the deposition and he actually did know what the word meant, defining consent as both parties being in agreement.
—City News Service