The Derrick Rose civil trial, in its last hours of testimony, was all about text messages on Tuesday. It began with Jane Doe answering questions about text messages her attorneys failed to submit to the defense earlier in the trial, continued with lawyers fighting over even more text messages, and ended with a former roommate of Doe’s talking about why she leaked certain text message to the website Baller Alert.
The day began with Doe finishing her testimony about a few specific text messages. According to Rose’s attorneys, these messages were left out of the exhibits the plaintiffs shared with the defense before the trial, which prompted them to ask for a mistrial. The judge denied that request last week, but said Doe could be called back onto the stand to be questioned about them. Her testimony on these particular messages began Friday and carried over to today.
On Friday and today, Doe insisted that she did not remember sending the text messages and again repeated, “I don’t text that way.” In response, defense lawyers referenced several other text messages she sent to Rose back in June, trying to show that she did text “that way,” using language that was similar to the kind that was used in the missing text messages.
One text message they brought up several times to make this point was sent from Doe to Rose on June 20, 2013. It read, “Dam baby u make you pussy wet.” Doe explained that she sent that message because Rose had just texted her about her pussy.
This line of questioning was continued by co-defense counsel Mike Monico, who first read the pussy text and then went to another text message, in which Doe told Rose she was going to take a shower with her vibrator (“I’m about to take a cold ass shower with my vibrator smdh.”) Doe said that one was a joke. Monico then brought up the fact that Rose had responded to that text with a request for a video. “He didn’t think you were kidding,” Monico told her.
“No,” she replied. “I guess not.”
Monico later rattled off another string of questions about a text message in which Doe asked Rose for money to pay cab fare for a friend who came with her to Rose’s place one night. The friend testified that she didn’t expect any money from Doe for their cab.
Monico asked if that meant the request for money was a lie; Doe said no. Why, then, did she ask for the cash? Because the friend was upset, Doe said. What was the cash for, he asked. Doe said it was for the cab. But the cab was only about $20, Monico said, and Doe had asked for more than $200 from Rose. A few questions later, Monico again asked if that made her request for money a lie. Doe, again, said no.
Monico also returned to another answer Doe has given many times during the case, that she doesn’t remember sending some of the text messages from the night of the alleged assault. “Because you don’t remember them, you can’t tell us if they are true or false,” Monico said.
During another section, defense lawyer Mark Baute went over Doe’s breakup with Rose. When Doe said she had trouble remembering when the two of them broke up, Baute asked, “Is that because you were blackout drunk the whole summer?”
Baute was later admonished by the judge for taking his questions outside the scope of what was allowed. During another string of questions, Baute tried to push back against Doe’s claim that she didn’t normally send lewd or vulgar texts. In one of the text messages referenced, Doe called a friend a bitch. Baute then went on to point out that Doe was able to use perfect punctuation and give out her address in texts she sent to Rose on the night of the alleged assault, this despite her claim that she was blacked out from drinking too much during that time. Baute then again brought up another old text in which Doe called a friend a bitch. An objection by Doe’s lawyers on the topic was sustained
Baute went to that same well one more time, saying to Doe, “In the July 23 text you did call women bitches.” That prompted Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald to tell Baute the issue would be taken up at sidebar. Doe didn’t have to answer the question, but she started to, saying, “I was upset,” while her voice cracked a little. After jurors left, Fitzgerald admonished Baute for going outside the scope of what is relevant from Doe’s past, which has been an issue for both sides in the case.
As for why some of the text messages were missing from what was given to the defense before the trial, Doe said, “I thought everything was produced.”
Afterwards, Doe’s attorney asked her if any of the previous text messages with Rose had ever “led to sex.” She said no. McCoy was allowed to ask her if she had ever had group sex with Rose before, and she said no.
Her testimony was followed by selections of the video deposition of Keyana Lavergne, a former roommate and coworker of Doe’s who gave text messages between her and Doe to Baller Alert. One message from Doe read:
Ok lets keep it at 90 then thats 6 months. Lol and i can even pay the whole couch off around xmas my dad gives me money not presents for xmas every year. then u just give me payment and since we finally filed against derrick we soon will be will be returning his tv and ill get us a Plasma.
Lavergne, in her deposition, said she came forward because she thought what Doe was doing was “morally wrong.” She said, “I have texts of her trying to use the situation for her gain.” She added that Doe “didn’t seem battered” or “off” at work the day after the alleged rape.
“I felt like if she felt like she had been raped, she would have told me,” Lavergne said.
The last person jurors heard from was a medical expert speaking on behalf of Doe about the PTSD she suffered afterward. Later in the afternoon, lawyers for both sides will present their closing arguments.