Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose has been named in a civil lawsuit alleging that he and two other men drugged a woman, broke into her apartment and raped her.
A lawyer for Rose strongly denied the accusation, categorizing it as "completely false and without any factual basis."
TMZ reported late Wednesday that the woman who has filed suit, "identified only as Jane Doe," alleges that the 2010-11 NBA Most Valuable Player and two of his longtime friends — Ryan Allen, the younger brother of Memphis Grizzlies guard Tony Allen, and Randall Hampton, identified in a December 2014 New York Times story as "Rose's manager" — committed sexual acts against her will in August 2013.
Ron Clements of the Sporting News has more on the suit, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court:
According to court documents obtained by Omnisport, a sister company of Sporting News, the woman said she was in a two-year relationship with Rose. She said they met at a Los Angeles party in October 2011 and began texting each other shortly thereafter. They began “meeting regularly and formed an intimate relationship with one another.”
The plaintiff claims she met with Rose approximately 12 times in 2011 and about 10 times in 2012, with another five meetings in 2013, ending with the alleged rape.
No criminal charges were sought stemming from the alleged incidents. The civil complaint says the woman was "reluctant" to report the rape to authorities because she feared retaliation and "did not wish jail time" for Rose. Instead, she filed a civil lawsuit with hopes of recovering what she says are damages to her life from the alleged incident.
In her lawsuit, the civil complaints against Rose, Hampton and Allen are sexual battery, battery, trespassing, conspiracy to trespass and commit rape and battery, a civil action for gender violence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress and a claim for declaratory relief. The plaintiff has requested a trial by jury.
As TMZ reported, the complaint alleges that Rose "tried to pressure [the plaintiff] to masturbate in front of him, allow him to have sex with her friends and engage in group sex with strangers, all of which she says she refused," but that she continued her relationship with Rose.
The suit also claims that Rose, Hampton and Allen slipped a drug into her drink during a visit to Rose's Beverly Hills, Calif., home on Aug. 26, 2013, and that their pursuit of her continued after she and a friend left Rose's house:
They took a cab back to the plaintiff’s Los Angeles apartment, where she claims the three men broke into her home and then forcibly had sex with her. The complaint says the plaintiff "has very little recollection of the events" because she was incapacitated by the drugs but had several "flashes" of memory of specific moments.
The woman claims that Allen, who was briefly on the Bulls roster in 2012, called her a month later, stated he “was not aware” the woman was drugged and thought “she had wanted it” while adding that “girls in L.A. ask them to have group sex because they recognize them as NBA players.”
It was after this conversation, the woman claims she was encouraged by a friend “to pursue legal action against the men.” The woman says she waited to take action because she felt "ashamed and embarrassed" from the encounter. She also felt concerned over what her "conservative family" would think of her.
After news of the complaint broke, Lisa Cohen, Rose's lawyer, denied the allegations against her client in an early Thursday morning statement detailed by Liz Mullen of the Sports Business Journal:
The plaintiff's allegations are completely false and without any factual basis. This is nothing more than a desperate attempt to shake down a highly respected and successful athlete. Mr. Rose was in a non-exclusive, consensual sexual relationship with the plaintiff for over two years. The plaintiff expressed no complaints about Mr. Rose until various lawyers began to surface and demand that the plaintiff be paid millions of dollars. This is the third lawyer the plaintiff has retained in this matter. Two years have passed since Mr. Rose ended the consensual relationship with the plaintiff and her claims are as meritless now as they were two years ago. We have complete confidence that the case will be dismissed and that Mr. Rose will be vindicated. This lawsuit is outrageous.
Shortly after Cohen issued her statement, the Bulls issued their own: "We just learned about this matter and do not know all the facts. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this time."
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