With less than a week to go before the civil rape trial of New York Knicks point guard Derrick Rose, his lawyers filed various last minute motions in court on Wednesday, and they’re pretty illuminating. Specifically, one of those motions makes no bones about how they plan on cross examining the unnamed complainant on the stand (emphasis ours):
In open and public courtrooms, the 30-year old Ms. Doe does need to recognize that if she and her lawyers are going to sue and ask for millions of dollars, by presenting herself as someone with a loss of consortium claim, she has opened the door to a cross-examination that is better left avoided. The same is true of Ms. Doe’s efforts to present herself as “conservative,” “prudish,” and “shy” — this opposition brief is not the place to go into Ms. Doe’s past, except to say that some plaintiffs are better served by focusing on the evening in question, and avoiding any effort to present herself as a supposedly chaste and naïve and shy person.
In other words, they’re going to slut shame her.
While not a new concept, the term “slut shaming” has become popular in the last few years to describe any attempt to, regardless of whether or not it’s true tobully someone (usually a woman) for what was perceived as sexually promiscuous behavior. This isn’t the first time Rose’s lawyers have taken this tact, but it appears to be the most obvious they’ve been about their intentions so far. That’s surprising in light of a ruling last Tuesday from the trial judge, Michael W. Fitzgerald, who threatened sanctions if “Defendant Rose continues to utilize language that shames and blames the victims of rape either in his motion practice or before the jury.”
The complainant, going by Jane Doe, has fought hard to keep her anonymity, but in the same ruling where he threatened sanctions, Fitzgerald did rule that she must use her legal name once the trial starts. However, that’s going to be re-argued on Thursday in light of the Los Angeles Police Department revealing that there’s an ongoing investigation into Rose and his alleged co-conspirators. Also at issue in the hearing will be whether Doe’s loss of consortium claim (or how the alleged attack affected her interpersonal relationships) will end up being at issue at trial. This is especially important in light of the defense’s desire to apparently use “slut shaming” type of tactics in court.
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