Pete Roses’s quest to repair his image isn’t going very well.
In a statement filed in federal court Monday, a woman claimed the MLB’s all-time hits leader had a sexual relationship with her in the 1970s before she was 16 years old, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. The woman’s testimony was filed as part of Rose’s ongoing defamation lawsuit against John Dowd who, in a radio appearance in 2015, accused Rose of routinely having sex with underage girls during his playing days.
Dowd also is the man who investigated Rose in the 1980s for gambling on baseball.
“In 1973, when I was 14 or 15 years old, I received a phone call from Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds,” the woman, identified as Jane Doe, said Monday, via the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Sometime after that, Pete Rose and I began meeting at a house in Cincinnati.
“It was at that house where, before my 16th birthday, Pete Rose began a sexual relationship with me. This sexual relationship lasted for several years. Pete Rose also met me in locations outside of Ohio where we had sex.”
In a filing submitted by Dowd’s lawyers in 2016, Rose reportedly acknowledged the relationship with the woman, though he claimed it began in 1975 — the year he was named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year — they only had sex in Ohio and he thought she was 16. And although 16 is the age of consent in Ohio, it’s higher in states such as Florida, where Dowd accused Rose of having sex with underage girls.
Those accusations are what led Rose to filing the lawsuit last year. And since this latest testimony seemingly isn’t connected to Dowd’s radio comments, Rose’s lawyers don’t think it will come into play.
“I doubt this filing gets in front of a jury,” Rose’s lawyer Ray Genco said told the Cincinnati Enquirer on Monday. “This provides no new evidence to back up what (Dowd) said on the radio, which is that Pete Rose had someone run 12-14-year-old girls for him in Florida.”
Due to Ohio’s statue of limitations, there’s no possibility that Rose will be charged with a crime.
Thumbnail photo via David Kohl/USA TODAY Sports Images
