Derrick Rose took the stand late Friday in the civil lawsuit that accuses him and two friends of gang-raping a woman at her apartment in Los Angeles in 2013. During questioning by the woman’s lawyer, Rose referred back to a text message she had sent him about 17 hours before the alleged rapes, saying, “U the reason why I wake up horny.”
During questioning by Waukeen McCoy, the lawyer for Jane Doe, Rose said,“She said she wanted to have sex with me.” McCoy asked Rose if the woman had texted it to him, since that was how they communicated. “No,” Rose said, and then mentioned a text message that Doe had send him the previous morning. “But she said she was horny.”
“But she didn’t say she wanted to have sex with you,” McCoy asked back.
“No,” Rose answered.
McCoy asked if Rose had interpreted the text message was what he had taken as an invitation to have sex with her that night.
“To have sex with her, yes,” Rose said.
McCoy asked if Rose essentially saw that text as “a hall pass” to get what he wanted. Rose said, “The relationship we have, it doesn’t matter the time of day.”
After walking Rose through the day’s events, the topic of consent came back. Rose added more to explain why he believed he had consent. He said he and his friends, Randall Hampton and Ryan Allen, had been “talking about sex all day.” At one point in the night, Rose said, he was in his room when Doe came in and was aggressive, trying to grab and kiss him, but he refused. Later in the night, he came out of his room and saw Doe having sex on the patio at the Beverly Hills house they were hanging out at with Hampton. Then she grabbed him and gave him a blow job, but he did not ejaculate. (Doe has previously testified that she was very intoxicated that night and only remembers parts of it in flashes.)
After telling McCoy that Doe did not tell him over the phone or by text that she wanted to have sex with him, he said, “With seeing that and then texting me to come over I assumed it.” Rose said their relationship was “sexual” and “non-exclusive.” When McCoy asked about if Rose believed their previous sex was a part of consent, “without having to talk to her again,” Rose answered, “She told me to come over.”
Rose then explained why he believed he had her consent. She wanted to have sex, and she let them all up to her apartment. He mentioned her prior texts about sex belts and being horny before adding, “The one thing we love about each other is sex.”
“In my mind, she consented every time we had sex. Why wouldn’t she do it that one time?” Rose said.
When they got to the apartment, Rose said he didn’t say anything to the woman. Allen went in the room first while he and Hampton waited on the couch. He said Doe said “one at a time,” which to him meant “wait your turn.”
The discussions about consent were part of a long day for jurors that included hearing the conclusion of Jane Doe’s testimony and cross examinations from both defense lawyers. McCoy’s examination of Rose wasn’t without issues. Because he called Rose first, without Rose giving essentially his narrative via his own lawyers, the questioning could be hard to follow. McCoy several times tried asking questions that referenced what Allen and Hampton might say that would be incorrect, but Judge Michael Fitzgerald told him to stop because “it’s just making it difficult for the witness to answer the questions.”
The day ended on a motion to dismiss by Rose’s lawyers. They said Doe’s legal team had introduced a text message that was not shared with the defense in full. The text they said they did not have in full was: “She was mad at me babe why u have me bring a bitch and u ain’t fina fuck her.”
Fitzgerald will rule on the motion Tuesday morning. Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald add that despite the Knicks’ schedule, he expected Rose to be in court Tuesday morning.