Pete Rose has denied recent claims accusing him of having sex with underage girls and so has his associate. Now the hit king and his lawyers are weighing their options and may take the matter to court.
The allegations were made during a radio interview in June and surfaced Thursday via an NJ Advance Media report. John Dowd, the investigator whose findings were the factor in getting Rose banished from the game of baseball, claimed that a former associate, Michael Bertolini, told him that Rose committed statutory rape.
However, the New York Daily News noted that on Friday, Bertolini denied ever making such allegations.
“He never did any such thing, nor did Pete Rose, nor did Mike say anything to Dowd about the subject,” said Bertolini’s attorney, Nick De Feis. “The story is libelous to (Bertolini) and to Rose and should be retracted immediately.”
When contacted by NJ.com on Friday, Dowd said that he longer wanted to talked about the topic and thought it was “blown out of proportion."
Rose said that he was completely shocked by the accusations and his attorneys are evaluating the statements made to see if and what legal action is appropriate.
Image courtesy of Roger Wong/INFphoto.com