The woman accusing Derrick Rose of rape filed a “fake” lawsuit to get revenge and money, a defense attorney told a Los Angeles jury Tuesday, but the plaintiff’s lawyer countered that his client was assaulted by the New York Knicks standout and his friends three years ago and has yet to fully recover.
“She wants money,” Rose’s lawyer Mark Baute said of the woman in his closing argument in the lawsuit now in its third week. “She was upset with Derrick for ending their relationship. She is not a real rape victim — she is a liar.”
The 30-year-old woman at the center of the trial is suing Rose, Ryan Allen and Randy Hampton for $21.5 million in damages for allegedly conspiring to break into her apartment and sexually assault her in the pre-dawn hours of Aug. 27, 2013, as she lay incapacitated.
A string of witnesses testified in federal court for both sides, and the defendants each told the jury that they had been invited to the plaintiff’s downtown home for consensual sex hours after they all had partied together at Rose’s rented Beverly Hills mansion.
Calling the allegations “a classic case of gang rape,” the woman’s attorney, Waukeen McCoy, insisted his client was “not looking for a quick dollar. She is looking for accountability.”
McCoy asked the eight-member panel to “hold these men accountable for their actions.” By painting the woman as sexually aggressive and inquiring about her sex life, the defense was attempting to “slut-shame” Rose’s accuser, the plaintiff’s attorney said.
The jury is expected to begin deliberations Wednesday.
Both sides agree that Rose and the woman were in some kind of relationship — either as non-exclusive sex partners or something deeper — for about 20 months prior to the alleged assault. Baute said Rose had broken up with the woman by text in July 2013, leaving her bitter and confused.
As the defense tells it, the woman sent Rose a text out of the blue on the morning of Aug. 26, 2013, indicating she was “horny.”
Rose “took the bait” and invited the woman to party with him in Beverly Hills that night, Baute said, suggesting that the accuser was secretly laying grounds for a rape lawsuit that wouldn’t be filed for two years.
The woman and a friend were invited to have a drink with Rose in Beverly Hills that night, the attorneys agree.
But where defense witnesses testified that the plaintiff appeared relatively sober and initiated sex with all three defendants at the gathering that night, the accuser told the jury that no sex ever took place at the party.
She said after a couple shots of tequila, she began to feel unusually intoxicated, and a cab was called to take her and her friend to their respective homes.
The alleged assault occurred hours after she returned to her apartment, following what the defense claims were dozens of 2 a.m. text messages and phone calls to the defendants allegedly insisting they drive over to see her.
The accuser was “the shot caller,” Baute said, telling the jury that the woman brought the defendants into her apartment and then told them to come to her bedroom “one at a time.”
“She exchanged pleasantries with the guys,” the lawyer said, and after sex “said goodnight.”
McCoy countered that the woman had no memory of the texts and phone calls and had not invited the three to her home.
Instead, the defendants “trespassed” and “raped her while she was passed out,” the accuser’s attorney said.
In defense testimony Friday, a former friend of the woman told the jury that the accuser is a constant liar who modeled her lawsuit on a similar case in which a famous rapper/singer handed over $5 million to settle rape allegations.
In testimony echoed in Baute’s closing argument, the ex-friend said the plaintiff had told her she would model her case on a lawsuit against Sean Kingston brought by a woman who claimed was “gang raped” by Kingston and his personal bodyguard after a Justin Bieber concert in 2010.
The witness said Rose’s accuser “saw her case being the same thing — that she would settle out of court” the witness said, adding that she believed the plaintiff “was trying to scheme to get money from Derrick.”
In other testimony that was brought up in defense closing arguments, a psychologist said she had examined the plaintiff and found signs the woman was exaggerating or feigning symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems.
The accuser has said that she was so intoxicated that she has only “flashes” of memory of the alleged rape. She contends she did not invite the men to her residence and has no memory of how the three got into her building.
Baute said the lawsuit, which was filed in 2015, was an attempt to “transfer wealth” from Rose and get back at him for ending their relationship.
He asked the jury reject the woman’s claims for liability and damages.
—City News Service