Derrick Rose: 'Confident I Will Be Proven Innocent'
(CBS) In his first public comments since news of a lawsuit alleging that he raped his ex-girlfriend broke, Bulls point guard Derrick Rose denied any wrongdoing and expressed confidence that he will be proved innocent.
"I am just focusing on staying healthy and getting ready for the season," Rose said in a statement released to USA Today. "I am not going to comment other than to say – I know the truth, and am confident I will be proven innocent."
Rose is being sued by an ex-girlfriend who claims he and two of his friends drugged her and then raped her in late August 2013 in California. The accuser brought forth the civil complaint in Superior Court of California in Los Angeles County, and news of it first surfaced Wednesday evening.
The suit alleges that on multiple occasions, Rose asked the ex-girlfriend — identified only as "Jane Doe" in the court filing — to have sex with Rose his friends. She refused time and again. In August 2013, Rose and his friends drugged her at his Beverly Hills residence, the suit alleges. The plaintiff's friend helped her get home in a cab, but Rose and his friends went to her residence and sexually assaulted and raped her, according to the lawsuit. They gained access because the complex's main door and her apartment door had been left unlocked.
Rose's attorney/spokesperson Lisa Cohen strongly denied the allegations, indicating it's a money grab.
"The plaintiff's allegations are completely false and without any factual basis," Cohen said. "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."
Click here to read the full lawsuit brought against Rose. (Editor's note: It contains graphic detail).
