Derrick Rose Found Not Liable in Gang Rape Case

After a two-week trial in Los Angeles, a jury has a returned a verdict in the Derrick Rose civil suit, finding him and his co-defendant friends not liable for the alleged gang rape of the plaintiff. Closing arguments wrapped up yesterday and jury instructions were provided today before a quick deliberation and a verdict that cleared the New York Knicks star of all the allegations.

Derrick Rose and codefendants are cleared of all charges in rape case #Doevrose @nypost
— Julia Marsh (@juliakmarsh) October 19, 2016

Rose kept his eyes down & hugged attorney after the verdict was read. The accuser kept her head buried in her hands in a prayer position.
— Julia Marsh (@juliakmarsh) October 19, 2016

Both the allegations and the defense of those allegations in this case were ugly. The accuser claimed that Rose and his two friends broke into her apartment and took turns raping her while she was passed out from drinking. Rose's legal team continually painted the accuser as liar who was "not a real rape victim," and instead was only after money.

Consent was at the heart of this case, and absent other witnesses, it was left to a he said/she said scenario. While there is no clear-cut, universally accepted legal definition of consent, the jury instructions offered one version. While recognizing that a person may be too incapacitated to actually give consent—which is what the accuser claimed—the court instructed the jury that it could find consent if they found evidence to suggest the plaintiff "may have expressed consent by words or acts that were reasonably understood" by Rose and the co-defendants as consent.

With these instructions, the jury deliberated just three hours and 45 minutes before finding Rose not liable.