Last month, a woman filed lawsuit against NBA star Derrick Rose and his friends, accusing them of drugging and gang raping her back in August 2013.
Rose maintains his innocence — even saying he’s going to use these accusations as “motivation” in the upcoming season — and there is no way of knowing at this point whether the accusations have merit.
However, Rose’s case already has one thing in common with other high-profile sexual assault cases against athletes: A disturbing trend of victim-blaming and a lack of understanding of what exactly constitutes consent.
On September 24, Rose’s attorney filed a document in response to the rape accusations. In that document, which ThinkProgress has obtained, Rose’s attorney only legally needed to refute the accuser’s claims by asserting that the woman consented. Instead, the attorney added extraneous information to the document, geared toward discrediting the woman in the court of public opinion.
Let’s take a look at the attorney’s defense:
The Plaintiff consented to sexual interaction with more than one co-defendant on more than one occasion, consented to sexual interactions on the day in question, and invited the defendants to her apartment and buzzed them in through security and opened the apartment door to welcome them, and then consented to additional group activities later that evening
The “additional group activities later that evening” is the only conduct relevant to her rape allegations. Whether or not the woman consented to sexual interactions earlier in the day, invited the defendants over, buzzed them in, and opened the door for them has nothing to do with whether or not she consented to the “group activities” once they were there.
The Plaintiff consented to all sexual interaction and was not injured at all, and did not report, show or claim any injuries to anyone, and went to work the next day at her normal time in the morning and worked a full day.
Rape does not always result in physical injuries, and every victim responds to sexual assault in a different way. Some, yes, cry and have a breakdown. But many victims are able to compartmentalize the trauma, either due to shock or necessity, and continue with their day-to-day lives. There is no one right or wrong way to respond to being raped; as the U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women notes, “Assumptions about a way a victim “should act” may be detrimental to the victim because each victim copes with the trauma of the assault in different ways which can also vary over time.”
The Plaintiff consented to all sexual interaction and had coffee with her roommate the next morning before heading to work for a full work shift. The Plaintiff became upset a few weeks or months later because she felt she should be reimbursed for one of the sex toys she purchased and used during the day and night in question.
Once again, knowing that this woman had coffee with her roommate the next morning and worked a full shift in no way tells us whether or not she was raped the previous night. The addition of sex toys into the narrative adds nothing, except for some salacious TMZ headlines.
The Plaintiff consented to all sexual interaction and exchanged friendly texts with one or more co-defendants after the day in question. The Plaintiff became upset several weeks or months thereafter, when she felt the Defendant was not responsive enough to her texts. The plaintiff deleted her Instagram photos which depicted her use of the sex toys in question.
It is not uncommon for victims to maintain cordial relationships with their rapist(s), particularly when they were close prior to the assault. In this case, the victim and Rose had dated on and off for years. And, of course, deleting an Instagram post means nothing. There are plenty of reasons to delete posts on social media, particularly if they involve sex toys.
All of this extraneous information just reinforces the oldest victim-blaming rape trope of all time: “She was asking for it.”
There’s a pattern here in the way alleged sexual assault victims are portrayed, particularly when famous athletes are involved.
In December 2012, former Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston was accused of sexual assault. Winston’s attorneys, the media, and Florida State fans used the fact that his accuser willingly left the bar with him, didn’t have severe injuries, and reportedly “hugged” Winston when he dropped her off the next morning as reasons to discredit her. The victim-blaming got so bad that his accuser had to drop out of school, while Winston went on to become the No. 1 overall NFL draft pick in 2015 and is now the quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
We’ve seen plenty of victim blaming in the ongoing rape investigation against Chicago Blackhawk Patrick Kane as well. Last month, the Buffalo News printed questionable statements from Mark Croce, the owner of the bar where the NHL star was seen partying on the night in question. Croce said he saw a woman “hanging all over” Kane “being very forward, very flirtatious, and that “it was almost like she stationed herself near him and was keeping other women away from him.”
Croce didn’t even know if the woman in question to was even the same woman who made the accusations against Kane, but the Buffalo News reported the statements anyways.
This month, as the case has taken many twists and turns, reports leaked that two semen samples were found on Kane’s accuser belonging to two other men. That rumor is now being used to paint the woman as promiscuous, and thus untrustworthy, despite the fact that such samples could be up to five years old.
The treatment of women who report rape helps explain why 68 percent of rapes are never reported to the police.
Derek Rose might be innocent. The woman might have consented to having group sex on the night in question. But her behavior before and after the incident in question tells us nothing.