PHILADELPHIA — A woman says she had a sexual relationship with former baseball great Pete Rose in the 1970s, starting when she was 14 or 15 years old.
Her sworn testimony was submitted Monday as part of a federal lawsuit Rose filed last year in Philadelphia against a lawyer whose investigation got him kicked out of baseball for gambling. Rose alleges John Dowd defamed him in 2015 by saying Rose raped girls during spring training.
Rose’s lawyer says the woman’s submitted testimony is “a big distraction” that shows Dowd can’t defend himself in the case.
The woman, identified as “Jane Doe,” says they began a sexual relationship in Cincinnati in 1973 that lasted several years.
Rose says in a statement accompanying Monday’s filing that he did have a relationship with the woman — starting when she was 16, which is the age of consent in Ohio.
