NBA star Derrick Rose to testify in rape lawsuit

In this June 24, 2016, file photo, Derrick Rose speaks during a news conference at Madison Square Garden in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

LOS ANGELES – The lawyer for an ex-girlfriend accusing NBA star Derrick Rose and two of his friends of rape said Friday he will call Rose to the witness stand after his client wrapped up her testimony.

Attorney Waukeen McCoy said Rose would be the next witness in the lawsuit seeking $21.5 million in damages from the point guard for the New York Knicks.

The woman who accuses Rose and the friends of gang raping her was under a second day of tough cross-examination that suggested she had sued for money.

"I didn't wish him any harm, I wanted him to be accountable," she said, denying she did it for money.

Defense lawyers pressed her to explain why the lawsuit was seeking $21.5 million and how her first text messages to Rose after the incident were about being reimbursed for cab fare and a "sex belt" she had given him.

Like many of her answers over two days, many responses were vague, though she eventually said she brought up the money to get Rose to respond to her.

Lawyers for Rose presented text messages from the woman to a friend at a time when she was unemployed.

"I need a very wealthy man. We should go find one," stated one text read by defense lawyer Mark Baute.

The woman also sent a text to a roommate saying that since she had filed suit, they would return their TV and upgrade to a plasma screen, Baute said.

Rose, 28, and his friends Ryan Allen and Randall Hampton have denied the accusations in the lawsuit and claimed the woman willingly had sex with all three.

The Associated Press is not naming the woman because it generally does not identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault.

Her vague recall and testimony at times contradicted what she told lawyers during her deposition and that left her vulnerable to combative cross-examination by the defense.

Rose watched the testimony while chewing gum, but showed little reaction. Allen, an NBA hopeful cut by the Bulls in the 2012 preseason, huddled with lawyers and took notes.

In a soft voice that at times couldn't be heard by lawyers or jurors, the 30-year-old woman said she was intoxicated and felt like she had been drugged after a visit to Rose's mansion in Beverly Hills in August 2013.

During cross-examination, she conceded that she never saw any drugs and she was never tested afterward. She didn't have a rape exam performed and wasn't tested for pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.

Rose's lawyer used a string of text messages as a timeline to question the woman's story and whether she even drank enough to black out hours later. And he questioned how she had managed to send lucid text messages during that period — several of which invited Rose to her apartment.

Baute got her to concede that she had lied to Rose in text messages earlier that day about plans she had and a stop at a sex shop she never made.

The woman testified that she began dating Rose on and off over 20 months — a relationship the defense has called "friends with benefits" — after meeting him during the 2011 NBA lockout at a Hollywood nightclub.

She thought they had a future together, though Baute cast doubt on that.

He showed that until that night in August, Rose had never been to her place, she never attended any of his games and during a visit when he was playing in Philadelphia, she never left their hotel.

After they split up in early summer of 2013, she hadn't been in touch with Rose until the morning of Aug. 26 when she texted him a photo of herself and said he was her "inspiration" and he turned her on.

She denied she was trying to rekindle the spark, saying she wanted to talk to see if they could "connect."