A new announcement in the Derrick Rose rape case could result in a mistrial.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald said he’s considering a mistrial over the handling of text messages critical to the case. Rose’s team accused the plaintiff’s lawyers of withholding three important text messages sent to the basketball player after the alleged rape, the New York Daily News reports.
Judge Fitzgerald called the accuser’s lawyers careless, saying “this is not a trivial point.” One text shows Rose’s accuser asking for money 24 hours after the alleged rape to cover the cost of a used sex belt and the cab ride she and a friend shared after leaving Rose’s house. Another text shows the anonymous woman asking Rose why he didn’t have sex with the woman she’d brought to the party. “She was mad at me babe why u have me bring a b—h and u ain’t fina f–k her,” she reportedly wrote.
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Rose also told the court he believed the woman would claim rape after she sent him a text claiming she was so drunk, she’d burned her hand after picking up rocks from Rose’s fire pit: “My hand bubbled up from the burns I was so wasted.”
According to the New York Daily News, Rose said, “It looked like a set up, I knew something was up. If someone touched the rocks in back we would have to call the paramedics.” The woman’s lawyers claim the defense did receive the texts before the trial. Her lawyer Waukeen McCoy even alleged they were produced last week in time to be used during cross-examination.
Judge Fitzgerald wasn’t too happy with the dispute over the texts and sympathized with Rose, who was forced to miss a pre-season game. “It’s not because he’s a celebrity. If your client was a Ph.D. student and had exams, I would be sympathetic,” he said.
Fitzgerald said the trial will continue as lawyers figure out exactly when the texts were handed over.