Baseball’s most prominent banned ex-player is back in the headlines, as Pete Rose has filed a federal lawsuit against investigator John Dowd.
Last summer, Dowd claimed that Rose was a statutory rapist and had young girls brought to him in various cities across the country.
Rose says the claims are “false and malicious”, according to the report from Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball.
The suit, which cites a couple interviews last summer at a time Rose’s petition for reinstatement was being considered by Major League Baseball, alleges that Dowd, who authored the Dowd report which led to MLB’s banishment of Rose, said in a couple broadcast interviews that “young girls” were “run” for Rose and one interview in which he allegedly called what Rose did “statutory rape.”
“We filed because Dowd’s statements are false and deeply offensive. Regardless of what John Dowd thinks of Pete Rose as a person, a ballplayer, or even a gambler, none of that justifies Dowd’s ugly accusations of pedophilia. Regardless of what you think of Pete … it’s not open season to throw reckless, defamatory statements at him,” Rose lawyer Ray Genco said.
Dowd was the lead investigator for the 1989 investigation regarding Rose’s illegal gambling as an active player and manager for the Reds, and was one of the major figures campaiging against his potential reinstatement to baseball. The suit cites several Dowd interviews in which he makes the accusations against Rose’s interactions with underage girls. One of the cited Dowd interviews occurred on a Philadelphia radio broadcast, where the investigator made the claims of Rose’s misconduct, where he stated the following:
“(Rose betting runner) Michael Bertolini, you know, told us that he not only ran bets but ran young girls down at spring training, ages 12 to 14. Isn’t that lovely? So that’s statutory rape every time you do that.”
The other cited interview addressed in the suit was during an interview with Jim Rome, where Dowd again bashed Rose for his character and made continued accusations about Rose’s conduct with young underage women.
“it’s just terrible arrogance that affects this guy and his people you know, shame on him; he’s now been caught bare ass in front of the commissioner and I love it. And now he’s standing out there naked.” And Dowd, according to the suit, said in that Rome interview, “He has Bertolini running young women down in Florida for his satisfaction, so you know he’s just not worthy of consideration or to be part of the game. This is not what we want to be in the game of baseball.”
Rose has continually denied the accusations from Dowd, who vehemently believes that one of baseball’s former greats bet against his own team and is strongly opposed to any kind of potential reinstatement.
