By Caleb Lunetta & Signal Staff
Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer, a Hart High School graduate, is under investigation after a woman accused the Cy Young Award winner of sexual assault, the Dodgers acknowledged Tuesday night amid a flood of media reports on the allegations.
The Signal obtained a copy of the allegations detailed against the MLB All-Star in a restraining order filed Monday.
Pasadena police officials acknowledge they are looking into the allegations, and Bauer had not been arrested and no charges had been filed as of Wednesday. Bauer’s attorney released a statement Tuesday evening denying the allegations.
The story spread quickly through national media after TMZ reported that Pasadena police were looking into the woman’s accusations. The Dodgers issued a brief statement during their game against the San Francisco Giants, according to Juan Toribio of MLB.com.
“The Dodgers were made aware of the allegations against Trevor Bauer late this afternoon and immediately contacted Major League Baseball, which will be handling this matter,” the Dodgers’ statement said. “The Dodgers take any allegations of this nature very seriously, but will have no further comment at this time.”
Major League Baseball had not issued a statement as of the publication of this article.
The woman’s attorney, Marc Garelick, told TMZ the woman had obtained a temporary domestic violence restraining order against Bauer. “The order is a result of a recent assault that took place at the hands of Mr. Bauer where (the woman) suffered severe physical and emotional pain,” the attorney told TMZ.
Restraining order details
In the restraining order filed by the woman at a Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday, she alleges that without her permission Bauer had put his fingers down her throat, strangled her by wrapping her own hair around her neck to the point she went unconscious and repeatedly punched her in the face and body. She also said that he had initiated anal sex with her while she was unconscious and without her permission, causing her to bleed and not be able to properly walk in the aftermath.
The encounters, she said, took place on two separate occasions, with the second involving punching and scratching, along with violent acts that had taken place during the first encounter. In both instances, the plaintiff alleges the sexual encounters had been consensual at first — she had driven up from her home in San Diego to meet with him both times after the two had first started talking via social media and had lengthy conversations about baseball and personal matters.
However, black eyes and bloody lips, as well as the “acute head injury and assault by manual strangulation” she was later diagnosed with following the second encounter (the exterior injuries allegedly received during the second encounter were documented in the attached exhibits to the restraining order) were not within her consent, according to court documents she filed Tuesday.
She also said Bauer punched her in the buttocks while she was unconscious, and then again in the vagina with a closed fist while she was awake. She said she could “not stop crying and shaking” while he reassured that he “would never do those things to (her) if it wasn’t sexually,” the complaint says.
The defendant states multiple times in her request for a restraining order that Bauer asked her multiple times if she was all right via electronic communication after the second encounter, telling her he felt “so bad that this happened,” if he could financially assist her while she recovered from her injuries.
After trips to two separate hospitals, where she spoke with multiple medical and neurological professionals, as well as law enforcement agencies in both San Diego and Pasadena, the woman says she remains in fear following her encounters with Bauer, which took place on April 21 and May 15.
“I have been diagnosed with PTSD and experience severe trauma. I am unable to sleep or eat. I am in constant fear,” said the woman listed in the complaint. “I am severely depressed and feel isolated and lonely. I am absolutely terrified of what will happen when all of this becomes public because he is a large public figure.”
Lt. Carolyn Gorgon of the city of Pasadena Police Department said the agency’s investigation into the matter remained ongoing as of Wednesday, and that criminal charges had not been formally filed against Bauer.
“At this time, it has not been presented to the District Attorney’s Office,” said Gorgon. “I’m unsure whether or not it’s going to be presented to the District Attorney’s Office. We are doing an ongoing investigation involving a female adult.”
She declined to comment further on the status of the investigation. The restraining order asks that Bauer stay away from the 27-year-old woman’s person, her home, her job, her vehicle and her school.
Bauer’s response
In a statement released to The Signal on Wednesday, Bauer’s attorney, Jon Fetterolf, vigorously denied the allegations and said Bauer and the woman had a pair of encounters involving consensual “rough” sex.
“Mr. Bauer had a brief and wholly consensual sexual relationship initiated by (the woman) beginning in April 2021,” the statement said. “We have messages that show (the woman) repeatedly asking for ‘rough’ sexual encounters involving requests to be ‘choked out’ and slapped in the face. In both of their encounters, (the woman) drove from San Diego to Mr. Bauer’s residence in Pasadena, California, where she went on to dictate what she wanted from him sexually and he did what was asked. Following each of her only two meetings with Mr. Bauer, (the woman) spent the night and left without incident, continuing to message Mr. Bauer with friendly and flirtatious banter. In the days following their second and final encounter, (the woman) shared photos of herself and indicated that she had sought medical care for a concussion. Mr. Bauer responded with concern and confusion, and (the woman) was neither angry nor accusatory.”
Fetterolf’s statement added that Bauer and the woman have not corresponded in the past month and haven’t seen each other in six weeks. “Her basis for filing a protection order is nonexistent, fraudulent and deliberately omits key facts, information, and her own relevant communications. Any allegations that the pair’s encounters were not 100% consensual are baseless, defamatory, and will be refuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Officials from Bauer’s camp said they would not be releasing an additional statement as of Wednesday, instead referring back to the statement issued by Fetterolf.
Bauer is in the first year of a three-year, $102 million contract with the Dodgers.
