Editors’ note: This story contains graphic accounts of domestic violence and sexual assault. If you or someone you know is a survivor of sexual assault or domestic violence, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or the Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer was sued Tuesday for sexual battery by the California woman who reported him for sexual assault last year. The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Los Angeles, a copy of which has been obtained by Sports Illustrated, serves as a counterclaim to the defamation suit that Bauer filed against the woman in April.
In the filing, the woman says Bauer is “leveraging his considerable resources to file a meritless lawsuit” against her because she chose to “exercise her legal rights in speaking with the proper authorities about what had happened.”
“Bauer’s disgraceful message is clear: battered women should remain silent, because neither the police nor the courts will protect them from a rich man scorned,” the filing reads.
Citing “economic harm, loss of earnings, and other damages,” the woman is seeking “punitive and exemplary damages from Bauer according to proof at trial.”
The woman’s counterclaim alleges many graphic details the woman first described in court last year, when she said Bauer sexually assaulted her on two different occasions, first on April 22 and again on May 16. In the first incident, she alleges in her counterclaim that Bauer choked her unconscious, and found Bauer penetrating her anally when she regained consciousness, to which she could not have consented to while unconscious. She said it caused her to “experience severe pain” as well as bleeding. Bauer stopped when asked, per her account.
In the second incident, the woman says that Bauer choked her in the same manner, once again causing her to lose consciousness, and then began to punch her in the face with a closed fist, causing black eyes, before choking her for a second time. She awoke to “severe pain,” and Bauer repeatedly punched her in the vagina, groin area and the buttocks.
The woman says she was hospitalized after the May 16 incident. Bauer has publicly denied punching the woman or assaulting her “in any way,” stating that the two engaged in consensual “rough sex” with “established rules and boundaries.”
However, the lawsuit alleges details of a conversation between the woman and Bauer from a phone call, which was placed with members of the Pasadena Police Department present, following the May 16 incident. On the call, Bauer “did not dispute that he had punched” the woman in the face or around her vagina, according to the suit. Bauer also allegedly said he should have “clarified” and gotten on the “same page” with the woman about the level of physicality in the encounter. He allegedly added that he would “never get to that point again.”
When asked how many times he punched the woman during the call with police, according to the filing, Bauer said, “I’m not sure. It wasn’t that many.”
In February, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office announced that Bauer would not face criminal charges after an investigation that began in August 2021.
That August, Los Angeles superior court judge Dianna Gould-Saltman dissolved a temporary restraining order and denied a five-year order sought by the woman against Bauer, calling her claims “materially misleading.”
Bauer was placed on administrative leave by Major League Baseball on July 2, 2021. On April 29, 2022, the league officially suspended him for 324 regular-season games, or two full seasons, following its investigation into the woman’s account that Bauer had sexually assaulted her. The suspension is the longest ever issued by the league for sexual or domestic violence. Bauer is appealing the suspension.
As part of its investigation, MLB interviewed Bauer over several days, according to SI’s Stephanie Apstein. According to The Washington Post, the league also investigated Bauer for other sexual assault allegations. An Ohio woman said Bauer sexually assaulted her in 2017, the Post reported last August. The woman sought a temporary order of protection against him in ’20, which was granted and which she dropped after six weeks.
Hours after the league announced the suspension, the Post published a story in which a third woman, also from Ohio, said Bauer sexually assaulted her in 2013, when Bauer was a minor leaguer in the Guardians’ system. She told the Post that Bauer “frequently ignored her warnings” after agreeing to stop choking her before she passed out, and “slapped her without her consent and anally penetrated her while she was unconscious.” She opted to speak to the newspaper after the previous two women shared their similar stories.
Bauer has denied the claims made by both Ohio women.
