Derrick Rose Facing Sanctions in Court Due to Language Used by Defense Team
Derrick Rose, who is scheduled to go on trial for sexual assault on Oct. 4, is facing sanctions in court stemming from his defense team's use of language that has shamed the alleged victim.
According to an official court order obtained by The White Bronco's Daniel Werly, U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald said, "If Defendant Rose continues to utilize language that shames and blames the victims of rape either in his motion practice or before the jury, the Court will consider sanctions."
The woman accusing Rose and his two friends of rape previously said the defense team for the New York Knicks point guard had engaged in "victim blaming" by labeling her a "sexual aggressor," according to the New York Daily News' Dareh Gregorian.
The Washington Post's Katie Mettler reported the woman's defense team claims "it’s a tactic Rose’s attorneys have used to intimidate the woman into dropping her lawsuit, an issue commonly raised by victim’s advocates, who argue that public scrutiny deters women from reporting sexual assault at all, let alone taking their cases to court."
Court-ordered sanctions can be broad in scope, including fines and other legal punishments. It is unclear what kind of sanctions Rose would face in this case.
The same order warning of potential sanctions against Rose also approved a motion brought forward by the defense that will not allow the plaintiff to remain anonymous during the trial.
"I want to share my story so women can know that they are able to come forward and remain anonymous and not to have to have the burden or the worry that their loved ones will find out," the accuser said, according to the Associated Press' Janie McCauley.
"They have a sense something's wrong, but there's no way I can express to them or explain to them how I feel or what I'm going through," the woman added. "Having to think of alternative ways to communicate that pain is very stressful and it takes a lot out of you."
Rose's attorneys have maintained throughout the pretrial process that the charges levied against the former NBA MVP by are part of a cash grab.
"This is not a rape case," Rose's lawyers said in court filings, per McCauley. "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."
According to an August report from TMZ, Rose, his friend Ryan Allen and his personal manager Randall Hampton are accused of gang-raping the plaintiff—whom Rose previously dated—after they allegedly slipped a drug in her drink.
