LOS ANGELES (CN) - Fighting civil sexual battery claims before a jury, New York Knicks basketball player Derrick Rose testified Tuesday that his former girlfriend had invited him and his two friends into her apartment for sex and told them to join her "one at a time" in her bedroom.
Rose was grilled by the woman's attorney Waukeen McCoy after U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald said that he was considering granting the point guard's motion for a mistrial on claims that the woman withheld important text messages from the defense.
McCoy told the judge that his legal team handed over the texts before the trial or at least before the woman testified last week, which they insist would have given Rose's team to use them during cross-examination of the woman, according to the New York Daily News.
Fitzgerald asked McCoy to produce documents that prove that the texts were not withheld.
The 30-year-old California women, whose name has been revealed during trial, accused Rose and his friend and co-defendants Randall Hampton and Ryan Allen of raping her in her bedroom during the early hours of Aug. 27, 2013 after trespassing at her apartment.
She claims that when she arrived at Rose's residence on the evening before she had already drunk vodka and a bottle of red wine. She then drank shots of tequila with the NBA player and co-defendants Randall Hampton, Ryan Allen and her female friend, she says.
She became so intoxicated that she picked up a hot gemstone next to a fire pit, and suspects that her drink was spiked with an unknown substance.
But on the stand on Tuesday, Rose stated that though he had seen the woman drink two shots of tequila he believed that she was sober and alert when he and his two friends showed up at her apartment two to three hours after a party at his Beverly Hills residence.
He told McCoy that the women had told them "one at a time" after letting them into her apartment. Allen went into her room first, while Rose and Hampton sat on the sofa. When pressed on how many minutes Allen was gone, Rose replied: "I don't remember but it wasn't that long."
Hampton went into the room next, followed by Rose. He said that when he entered the room the woman had told him to close the door.
"She was lying on her back playing with a vibrator," he said, adding that it was pink.
He testified that after putting a condom on they had sex. He said that based on his NBA training, he pocketed the condom after having sex with her rather than flushing it down the toilet or trashing it.
Rose told McCoy that he spent one week at a training camp in Orlando called the Rookie Transition Program where he was trained on professional matters and how to deal with sex and finances.
He said it was "kind of the norm in my profession" to keep condoms after sexual encounters.
"You never know what people will do," Rose said. "I didn't feel comfortable leaving a condom at her place."
Rose later told McCoy during cross-examination that he was skeptical when the woman sent him a text message telling him that she had burned her hand on hot gemstone and that he thought that she was going to "claim rape."
He told that the court that his friends would have mentioned if the woman had hurt her hand, and that the paramedics would have been called.
"It turned out to be what I thought," Rose said.
Rose was once one of the league's hottest prospects - he was named the league's most valuable player in 2011 - but his career has been plagued by injuries. With the sexual assault claims pending, the Chicago Bulls traded him to the Knicks in June.
Testimony was to continue on Tuesday afternoon in downtown LA.
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