The woman whose sexual assault claims against Trevor Bauer triggered an investigation that resulted in a two-year suspension of the Dodgers pitcher denied that any of the allegations were “false, fabricated, or bogus,” her attorneys wrote in a court filing this week.
Bauer sued the woman for defamation in April, claiming she lied about her sexual encounters with him in order to destroy his reputation and career while enriching herself. Four days after he sued, Major League Baseball handed down a suspension that could cost him as much as $60 million.
In her response, filed in US District Court in Santa Ana, the woman denied claims she had made a “false, misleading or defamatory police report” and denied she had “submitted altered or filtered photographs” in her request for a restraining order.
In particular, the woman disputed the meaning of a text message that neither Bauer nor the woman included in court filings. In suing, Bauer’s attorneys said the woman had texted a friend that the two “would be able to travel to Europe together in style once she was successful in her plot to destroy Mr. Bauer by tricking him into having rough and rougher sex with her.”
In her response, the woman’s attorneys said the text message was “about going to Europe when she was a rich baseball wife.”
On multiple occasions in the filing, the woman’s attorneys responded this way to Bauer citing various text messages that purportedly supported that plot: “Defendant denies she had a plan to destroy Plaintiff’s reputation or career or exploit him for money. Defendant admits she was angry at Plaintiff because he had sexually assaulted her.”
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge declined to grant the restraining order, finding in part that the woman had been “materially misleading” in part of her request. The judge also said the woman’s injuries, as depicted in photographs, were “terrible” but said the woman “was not ambiguous about wanting rough sex.”
After the Los Angeles County district attorney declined to file criminal charges against Bauer, one of the woman’s attorneys, Fred Thiagarajah, told the Washington Post there was “no doubt that Mr. Bauer just brutalized the woman” and that the violent actions she alleged had happened with “100% certainty.”
Bauer has said he “never assaulted her in any way.”
Bauer included Thiagarajah in the defamation lawsuit; his attorneys have asked the court to throw out Bauer’s case against him. Thiagarajah’s attorneys noted that Bauer omitted the follow-up sentence in his comments to the Post: “The issue was whether or not she consented to the abuse.”
In his response, Thiagarajah’s attorneys said Bauer had resorted to “selectively and deceptively” using quotes and called Bauer “the star baseball player renowned for his pitching on the field and his bullying off.”
Bauer also has filed defamation suits against the Athletic and Deadspin; Both outlets have asked for the suits to be thrown out. Bauer also is in the process of his appeal of the MLB suspension, with no timetable for a ruling.
The league can suspend a player even in the absence of criminal charges, and at least two other women made claims against Bauer to the Post. MLB has not said what evidence it believes warranted the suspension, and it is unclear whether the arbitrator hearing the appeal will offer an explanation for whatever the decision might be. Bauer has said he engaged in consensual rough sex but did nothing to warrant a suspension.