On Aug. 26 last year, a woman using the pseudonym Jane Doe filed a civil suit against NBA point guard Derrick Rose and two of his lifelong friends, manager Randall Hampton and Ryan Allen. The suit alleges that two years prior, the three men drugged her at a party in Los Angeles, then hours later trespassed into her apartment and proceeded to gang rape her while she was unconscious.
She’s seeking $21.5 million in damages. Now, Rose’s lawyers want Doe’s name—and, in turn, her social media accounts—revealed to the public when the trial starts on Tuesday.
Rose’s side of the story has already been readily available on TMZ, with headlines like “‘SEX BELT’ At Center of Rape Allegations.” “Derrick Rose says pictures of his accuser wearing a ‘sex belt’ can help prove he’s not a rapist,” begins the article by TMZ’s staff published last December.
Now Rose’s camp wants her name attached to that kind of story.
Last month, federal judge Michael W. Fitzgerald ruled that the jury and anyone with court access will hear Doe’s real name in open court, but recent developments may reverse the judge’s ruling.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a letter to Doe’s lawyers that it has opened a criminal investigation over rape allegations against Rose. Brandon Anand, one of Doe’s attorneys, has filed a motion asking the judge to reconsider his ruling in light of the LAPD’s letter.
Anand also notes in the filing that soon after the judge’s ruling, Doe’s name began to appear on social media.
Revealing Jane Doe’s identity has been a months-long battle for Rose’s camp. A memorandum filed on Aug. 22 stated that: “This is not a rape case. It’s pure and simple extortion by a plaintiff who wants to hide behind the cloak of anonymity while seeking millions in damages from a celebrity with whom she was in a long-term nonexclusive consensual sexual relationship.”
Rose’s lawyer Mark Baute wrote in a court filing that the Jane Doe does not deserve anonymity, as she willingly placed herself in the spotlight.
“It is rare to see this sort of desperate and open pandering for a settlement by counsel, and unheard of for a plaintiff (who is proceeding under a pseudonym) to actively seek such extensive media coverage on the eve of trial,” Baute wrote. ”Because Jane Doe and her lawyers are openly pandering to the media on a nationwide blitz tour, Ms. Doe should be precluded from using a pseudonym for any purpose, including media coverage.”
Doe’s “nationwide blitz tour” refers to a series of interviews given to national print outlets by the accuser in August, about 8 months after stories about the case began appearing on websites like TMZ.
Other court arguments from Rose’s lawyers for Doe to reveal her identity include that it is only “fair” that she share in the media scrutiny, that she must reveal herself because she is older than Rose, and that “photos from [Doe’s] Instagram account are sexual in nature.”
The judge stated that “such rhetoric has no place in this Court.”
Doe’s lawyer Anand told The Daily Beast that Rose’s lawyer’s arguments show that “they have no other defenses. They know that he did what our client alleges. The stories of the three defendants is ridiculous, on top of that [Rose] showed no remorse. This could’ve been done with a long time ago, and part of it would be that he apologizes for what he did. But we’re extremely confident going into trial.”
When asked for comment, Rose’s lawyers responded in an email:
“We don’t try cases in the media. We believe strongly in a plaintiff’s right to consent. In this case, consent was freely given. The right place to prove that is in the courtroom, next week. Not in the media. The plaintiff and plaintiff’s counsel believe that the media is the place to try the case. We disagree.”
The parties do not agree on much, but they meet on some points regarding the case. Both sides agree that Doe met Rose in 2011. They began a non-exclusive relationship which lasted two years.The couple broke up in the summer of 2013 after, but not because, Doe refused to participate in group sex with Rose. On Aug 26, 2013, she reached out to him and was invited to his rented home in Beverly Hills. She arrived with her friend, Jessica Groff, around 9 p.m. in a car Rose provided, and left at about midnight in a taxi.
They disagree on whether Doe was drugged at the house, whether she had sex with Rose’s friends at the house, whether she let the three men into her apartment in the early hours of Aug. 27, 2013, and whether she consented to sex with Rose, Hampton, and Allen.
In June, Rose’s attorneys filed a Motion for Summary Judgment alleging that the case should be thrown out. The motion was denied because the judge concluded that there was “a genuine dispute of material fact as to the central issue in this action: whether Plaintiff consented to sexual intercourse with Defendants in early morning of August 27, 2013.”
Rose is listed as one of the highest paid players in the NBA, and expects to take home about $21 million from this year’s season with the New York Knicks. He also has a lucrative contract with Adidas valued at $260 million over 15 year period. Neither the NBA nor Adidas has commented on the pending suit against Rose.
Rose could miss the beginning of the season if the lawsuit is not settled before the trial date of Oct. 4. “He’s aware of it, but it’s not keeping him up at night,” Knicks President Phil Jackson said at a press conference earlier this month.
Derrick Rose participated in media day for the Knicks last week, and addressed the news that he was the subject of an active criminal investigation for rape. He stated, “I am not worried about it, I felt like I didn’t do anything wrong.”