A crying 30-year-old woman haltingly told a Los Angeles civil jury Thursday that New York Knicks point guard Derrick Rose and two other men entered her apartment uninvited while she slept and took turns sexually assaulting her.
Court papers show that the Los Angeles Police Department has opened an investigation into the woman's allegations, but no criminal charges have been filed.
When Rose entered the courtroom, the woman paused and became emotional while being questioned by her attorney about the events on a night in August 2013.
But Rose's lawyers later pressed her, getting the woman to admit that she'd lied in a text to Rose - fabricating the story about a trip to a sex store because she was bringing the sex belt and wanted him to think it was new.
The night began at Rose's Beverly Hills mansion where his accuser showed up with a friend - and a "sex belt" - and drank herself into a black hole.
The woman testified until a lunchtime break about dating Rose on and off over 20 months - a relationship the defense has called "friends with benefits".
"I recall waking up and seeing them in my room", she said of the three men.
The victim, who has remained anonymous, went into graphic detail about the incident, crying as she recounted details of the alleged rape. I never felt like that before.
In sharp contrast to McCoy's statement, defense lawyers doubled down on their assertions that the accuser willingly had sex with the trio at Rose's mansion in Beverly Hills. Tensions were sure to get higher with Doe being the opening witness for her own case, which may have gotten off to a promising start when Rose wasn't in court at the beginning of the day as promised. "There was no rape at all". An "open condom" was on the floor, she said.
Jurors will have to rely primarily on her word against that of Rose and the other two men, Ryan Allen and Randall Hampton.
The woman didn't report the alleged incident to police until 2015.
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After sex, Rose took his condom, put it back in the wrapper and took it with him "like he was never there", attorney Waukeen McCoy said.
National Basketball Association players are instructed to flush their condoms down the toilet or take them so women can't use the sperm to impregnate themselves, Rose's lawyer said.
Rose formerly played for the Chicago Bulls but now plays for the New York Knicks. He's in the final year of a five-year deal that will pay him $21.3 million, nearly identical to what the plaintiff is seeking. A lawyer for Rose said the woman's lawsuit a "sad effort to get a lottery hit", the Times reported.
The woman was not examined by a doctor afterward and didn't report the alleged rape for almost two years after the incident.
She thought they had a future together, though Baute cast doubt on that.
After they split up in early summer of 2013, she hadn't been in touch with Rose until the morning of August 26 when she texted him a photo of herself and said he was her "inspiration".
"I don't usually text like that", she replied. She said she would come over for drinks.
He invited her over that night by text message and made overtures to bring a friend along for a threesome.
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