The Derrick Rose trial might be hitting a very big speed bump, very soon. As the trial goes into its second week both sides are contesting different angles of the case. Rose is pleading that he had consent based on past experiences with Jane Doe and the accuser’s lawyers are saying Rose took advantage of an obviously inebriated woman.
(UPDATE: 10/12/16) The Judge has ruled that there will be no mistrial in the Derrick Rose case. The Los Angeles Times shed some more light on the situation.
A federal judge in Los Angeles decided Wednesday against declaring a mistrial in the lawsuit accusing NBA star Derrick Rose and two friends of raping the basketball player’s former girlfriend in 2013.
U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald faulted the woman’s legal team for not having provided the defense sooner with three text messages she sent to Rose around the time of the alleged assault, but the judge said the failure was not serious enough to call an end to the civil court trial….
Fitzgerald ruled that the woman could be questioned again by Rose’s attorneys and that jurors would be told of the plaintiff’s error.
(Original story from 10/11/16)
Come tomorrow morning, things in the trial might take a different twist. The judge in the trial is leaning towards a possible mistrial in the case. It appears that the lawyers for Jane Doe didn’t present all of the text messages available to both sides.
Following from Julia Marsh of the New York Post.
“Let me be very blunt with you. You have been very careless with these exhibits,” Judge Michael Fitzgerald said Tuesday morning.
The judge was referring to three lewd text messages between the accuser and Rose sent just hours before and after the alleged rape. They discuss a massage therapist whom the accuser brought to a party at Rose’s house the night of the alleged sexual assault and bely her claim that she was in no mood for group sex.
The judge said the missing texts give “credence to the allegations which are now being made by the defense” – that the accuser lied about the rape.
“It might very well be a mistrial,” the judge said.
But he added that he was hesitant to call off the trial because the jury has already spent a week on the case and the NBA regular season starts on Oct. 25.
The judge said he was “not thrilled’ about requiring Rose to miss regular season games, “not because he’s a celebrity who gets special treatment.”
Waukeen McCoy, one of the accuser’s lawyers, said that the texts were given to the defense between November 2015 and January 2016, according to the New York Post. The judge said he wanted evidence of this when the trial resumes on Wednesday.
Judge said he will take up mistrial motion in the morning when he expects Doe's side to prove whether she provided texts to Rose bef. trial
— Julia Marsh (@juliakmarsh) October 11, 2016
The judge said over and over again "This is not a trivial matter." He was very angry at this.
— Diana Moskovitz (@DianaMoskovitz) October 11, 2016
The judge said he wants something from Jane Doe's lawyers with a Bates stamp proving when they gave the defense the text messages.
— Diana Moskovitz (@DianaMoskovitz) October 11, 2016
Judge sounded like he wants these documents from Jane Doe's lawyers by tomorrow morning.
— Diana Moskovitz (@DianaMoskovitz) October 11, 2016
If he doesn't get that, the judge said then the defense is correct and he will decide how that should be resolved.
— Diana Moskovitz (@DianaMoskovitz) October 11, 2016
If the texts were indeed withheld, then the defense would have missed its chance to question the woman about them while she was on the stand and it could very well change everything in a future case. Marke Baute, Rose’s lawyer, argued that the texts show that she and her friend went to Rose’s Los Angeles home with the intention of having sex.
Upon hearing the motion for a mistrial, the judge was “very angry,” per multiple reports.
Rose also was on the witness stand today to testify. While he did outright say that the NBA instructs their rookie players to discard of condoms if they can’t be flushed, he did also shed some more light on his side of the story. Rose says he feels like he was set up, according to the Associated Press.
Rose said he became suspicious of the woman when she texted later the same day of the alleged attack in August 2013 to say how inebriated she had been and to describe burns she claimed she got on her hands from a fire pit outside his Beverly Hills house. Rose said he believed she was sober and never witnessed any burns the night before.
“It looked like a setup,” Rose said. “It turned out to be what I thought.”
Rose was testifying for a second day in the $21.5 million lawsuit that claims he and his friends had sex without the woman’s consent when she was incapacitated from drinking and, possibly, drugs.
The important thing to also remember is that if a mistrial does occur, Rose might have to miss some future regular season games with the New York Knicks. He’s already missed a couple of preseason games and if the trial is pushed back any further, he’ll have to do this all over again.
Come tomorrow morning we’ll get some results as to the future status of the case but at this point, everything is still up in the air. It’s a civil trial so a lot of weird things can happen. With Rose not looking to come to a settlement with the accuser, it’s hard to believe – even if there is a mistrial – that he would want to back down. He wants to clear his name.
