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Trevor Bauer, the superstar LA Dodgers pitcher, has been accused of assault by two women. On Thursday, a judge denied one of the women a permanent restraining order against Bauer, while simultaneously dissolving the temporary order she had in place. The woman has accused Bauer of striking her and asphyxiating her without her consent during an intimate encounter, though Bauer denies doing anything against the woman’s wishes.
Bauer, 30, would have been sent to a year-long battery program had the judge upheld the permanent restraining order. “If she set limits and he exceeded them, this case would’ve been clear. But she set limits without considering all the consequences, and respondent did not exceed limits that the petitioner set,” Judge Gould-Saltman said in court remarks on Thursday.
The woman, a 27-year-old from Los Angeles, told the court “I did not consent to bruises all over my body that sent me to the hospital and having that done to me while I was unconscious,” according to the LA Times. Bauer himself has not publicly spoken about the case or the accusations, and, when called to the stand to testify, invoked his Fifth Amendment rights to not incriminate himself during the trial.
On its surface, the case seems cut-and-dry. The woman submitted photographs of her bruises to the court, which indicate that Bauer was very rough with her during their encounter. However, the defense presented evidence of text messages between the two that indicated the plaintiff explicitly asked for “all the pain”.
The judge reportedly stated that “when a woman says no, she should be believed. So, what should we do when she says yes?” Due to the unambiguity of the correspondence between Bauer and the plaintiff, the judge moved to dissolve the temporary restraining order and to forego the implementation of a permanent restraining order.
Another woman has also made accusations of assault against Bauer, alleging that he struck her during an encounter in 2017. The woman, who is from Ohio, is said to have been in an on-and-off relationship with Bauer from 2016 to 2019, though Bauer himself alleges that she has tried to extort him by fabricating stories of abuse.
As a result of the accusations, Bauer has been on paid leave from the LA Dodgers team. His leave has been extended through August 27 and is reportedly inteneded to allow him to appear in court during the ongoing proceedings. Some sports commentators, however, believe that the leave is also partially to help distance the team from Bauer in light of the negative attention from the serious allegations against him.
