Rose cleared in rape lawsuit

LOSANGELES>> Jurors cleared NBA star Derrick Rose and two friends Wednesday in a lawsuit that accused them of gang raping his ex-girlfriend when she was incapacitated from drugs or alcohol.

The jury reached the verdict in federal court in Los Angeles after hearing dramatically different accounts of the August 2013 sexual encounter.

Rose says he’s thankful that the jury rejected the lawsuit.

He said in a statement to The Associated Press that it was important to prove he did not do what he was accused of, even though he had to share private details of his personal life.

“I am thankful that the jury understood and agreed with me,” his statement said. “This experience and my sensitivity to it was deep. I am ready to put this behind me and focus on my family and career.”

Jurors later posed for photographs with Rose one at a time in the courthouse lobby.

One of the two men among the eight jurors who identified himself only by his first name and age, Jared, 25, said the panel tried to look at the case in the plaintiff’s favor but in the end could not believe her and felt her tears were not genuine.

“It felt like she was playing us,” he said.

Neither side denied the three men had sex with the woman, but the issue was whether she consented or was too intoxicated to do so.

Defense lawyers tarred the woman as a liar who tried to sway jurors through her tears to get at Rose’s fortune. They claimed she was angry he had dumped her and she set him up and brought the lawsuit in hopes of a big payoff.

The woman’s lawyer called the men “sexual deviants” and says they conspired to gang rape her after she was drunk and incapable of consenting to sex.