Chicago Bulls pointguard Derrick Rose continued his fight towards verifying his innocence when asked to address his on-going civil lawsuit and rape allegations that have been haunting him for the past two years. While speaking to the media on Monday (Sept. 28), the NBA star adamantly denied the claims, revealing incident has only motivated him to work harder.
Jane Doe, Rose's ex-girlfriend who's identity has remained sacred throughout the investigation, is accusing the basketball player and his friends of drugging her and later, participating in a gang rape, according to WGN-TV. After the alleged drugging, she claimed Rose, Randall Hampton and Ryan Allen broke into her home and forced themselves on her while she was incapacitated in August 2013. A civil lawsuit was filed against him this August.
"I will be proven innocent, but at the same time, it hasn't affected anything. It's not true. I take it as motivation," Rose said from the Bulls' practice facility at their media day. "I feel like the devil is just working. I feel like I'm on the right track as far as where I want to be at in my life. And I feel like when you're that focused, people try to take you down. I'm very confident that I will be proven innocent."
The 2011 MVP and his lawyer have remained so loyal to their denial of the sexual assault allegations, that he apparently filed his own documents against her. According to TMZ, he claims Doe agreed to consensual sex with more than one of his friends on multiple occasions, including the day in questions, as well as, invited and buzzed the defendants into her Los Angeles based apartment.
Rose was apparently in a "nonexclusive, consensual sexual relationship" with Jane Doe for more than years, according to Sports Illustrated.
"In regard to Derrick's situation, we understand that there's a process that he'll need to go through, but Derrick's part of our family and Derrick has our full support," Chicago Bulls General Manager Gar Forman said on the topic. "I think he's in a great place physically, I think he's in a really good place mentally and I think his focus, just like his teammates, is on getting started tomorrow."
The Chicago native went on to describe Jane Doe's actions after the alleged consensual sex took place, stating the woman had coffee with his roommate the following morning and went on to work a full shift at work. Rose also believes the reason she became angry is because he was not replying to her text messages, nor did she get reimbursed for a sex toy that was used during the act.
Jane Doe is seeking unspecified damages. As for rose, he refuses to let the allegations get in the way of his career. So far, there has been no talk of him missing any games.
The Bulls kickoff their basketball season on Oct. 27 against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
