Derrick Rose loses motion, will face trial in civil gang-rape suit

Derick  Rose at Court

A federal judge on Wednesday denied Derrick Rose’s motion to dismiss a civil lawsuit alleging he and two other men drugged a woman, broke into her apartment and raped her, meaning the case against the New York Knicks point guard will proceed to trial.

Court documents published Friday by Daniel Werly of The White Bronco show that Rose’s motion for summary judgment in the case, filed on June 20, was denied by U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald due to substantial disagreements on the most important facts of the case between the versions forwarded by Rose and his fellow defendants — Ryan Allen, the younger brother of Memphis Grizzlies guard Tony Allen, and Randall Hampton,“Rose’s best friend since grammar school,” identified in a December 2014 New York Times story as his manager — and the woman who first filed the civil complaint against the three defendants in Los Angeles County Superior Court last August, identified in court documents only as “Jane Doe.”

“The record presents a genuine dispute of material fact as to the central issue in this action: whether Plaintiff consented to sexual intercourse with Defendants in early morning of August 27, 2013,” Fitzgerald wrote in his judgment. “Because the jury and not the Court must resolve this central issue, summary judgment is improper. ”

In the original civil complaint, Jane Doe alleged that then-Chicago Bulls guard Rose — with whom she had allegedly had a sexual relationship from late 2011 until July 2013 — Allen and Hampton placed a drug in her drink during a night out, and that she was in an “incapacitated state of consciousness” when they allegedly “gang raped” her, according toPatrick M. O’Connell of the Chicago Tribune:

The 31-page lawsuit offers explicit details of the couple’s sexual relationship, portraying Rose as pushing the woman to engage in sexual encounters she was uncomfortable with, including with friends. That pressure, according to the lawsuit, contributed to the couple’s breakup. […]

The woman claims the sexual assault happened after the group attended a party at a home in Beverly Hills, Calif. After drinking tequila at the party, the woman alleges in the lawsuit, she left in a taxi with a friend. Rose, Hampton and Allen allegedly later drove to her home and sexually assaulted her. […]

In the weeks after August 2013, the woman, who worked as an administrator for a property management company, said she became paranoid that Rose was monitoring her phone calls, according to the lawsuit.

But the suit does say she was reluctant to report the incident for fear of retaliation and because she had been in a consensual relationship with Rose. Trauma from the alleged assault led to emotional turmoil for the woman, according to the lawsuit, and she lost her job.

Jane Doe is seeking $21.5 million in damages in the suit, which was first filed in state court and later transferred to federal court.

Rose’s attorney, Lisa Cohen, responded with a statement granting that Rose and Jane Doe had engaged “in a non-exclusive, consensual sexual relationship with the plaintiff for over two years,” but calling the gang-rape allegations “completely false and without any factual basis” and casting the case as “nothing more than a desperate attempt to shake down a highly respected and successful athlete.”

In a subsequent court filing, another attorney for Rose, Mark D. Baute, disputed the claim that the sexual contact during the incident in question was non-consensual, according toThe Associated Press:

In Baute’s filing on behalf of Rose, the 2011 NBA MVP denies the allegations and says the woman “consented to the actions she now claims were non-consensual.”

“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,” it reads.

Rose’s filing also says the woman “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.” She also became upset with Rose for not being responsive enough to her text messages, according to the court document.

Turkey: PKK fighters killed in attempt to storm base

Officials say air operation targeted PKK members after attempt to storm military base in southeastern Hakkari province.

Some southeastern cities have been engulfed in violence since the 1990s [AP]

Turkish military officials say the army has killed 35 Kurdish fighters after they attempted to storm a military base in the southeastern province of Hakkari.

The early morning attack on Saturday came just hours after clashes in Hakkari's Cukurca district between Turkish troops and fighters from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the officials said.

They said the fighters attempted to take the base in three different groups, but were spotted by aerial reconnaissance.

An air operation was subsequently launched, killing 23 fighters, the Turkish officials said.

Four more were then killed in a ground operation, they said, adding that the other eight Kurdish fighters were killed in Friday's gun battle in Cukurca.

Those clashes also left 25 soldiers wounded, the officials said.

Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith, reporting from Istanbul, said the PKK is taking its fight back out to the country side since the peace process ended this time last year. 

"A lot of the fighting was in the urban areas before and that resulted in extraordinary destruction of property and civilians death. The PKK seems to have withdrawn from that area now and fighting the Turkish military out in the country side where they had traditional fought before."

Last week, Turkey's military launched air strikes against PKK members in northern Iraq, killing 20 fighters.

In the southeast, the military has frequently carried out air strikes after a two-and-a-half-year ceasefire and peace process between the government and the PKK broke down last summer.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the PKK - designated a 'terrorist group' by Turkey, the US and the European Union - began its armed campaign in 1984.

Turkey carries out frequent attacks against PKK targets in Iraq's Kurdish-dominated regions near the Turkish border, where the PKK leadership has camps.

Turkey's military, NATO's second-largest, has continued to grapple with the low-intensity conflict in the mainly Kurdish southeast as its senior ranks undergo a major shake-up in following a July 15-16 failed coup.

Iraq: Deaths in car bomb market attack near Baghdad

At least nine killed and dozens wounded in car bomb blast at outdoor market in Rashidiyah, north of Iraqi capital.

Iraq Bombing

The blast ripped through an outdoor market as government forces are deployed in most of Baghdad.

At least nine people have been killed and dozens wounded in a car bombing at an outdoor market in a district just north of Iraq's capital, Baghdad, according to police sources. 

Police said a parked car packed with explosives blew up on Tuesday morning at a vegetable and fruit market in Rashidiyah town.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which wounded at least 20 people. 

Baghdad is on high alert for attacks after a blast in the central Karada district on July 3 killed more than 300 people.

This was the deadliest bombing in Iraq since US-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein 13 years ago.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS), which holds territory in Iraq, claimed responsibility for that attack.

The bombing in Rashidiyah came as the Iraqi parliament was due on Tuesday to discuss security measures in the capital in the wake of the attack in Karada.

On Friday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi accepted the resignation of interior minister Mohammed al-Ghabban and sacked the city's head of security operationsand other senior officials.