Defense lawyers at the Derrick Rose civil rape trial played the race card less than two hours into jury selection Tuesday — but their arguments fell flat with the judge overseeing the blockbuster case against the Knicks’ new point guard.
A lawyer for Rose’s two co-defendants — longtime pals Randall Hampton and Ryan Allen — complained that there were “only two African-Americans” among the 50 prospective jurors summoned to court.
Rose’s lawyer also objected to the fact that 15 of the first 27 names in the pool “appear to have Hispanic surnames.”
Rose, Hampton and Allen are all African-American, while the woman suing them for $21.