Trevor Bauer Makes Appearance In Los Angeles Superior Court; Civil Hearing Postponed Until August

Nearly a month after he last pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Trevor Bauer appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court Friday for a civil hearing in which Bauer was to contest a temporary restraining order filed against him by a 27-year-old San Diego woman, and the pitcher’s representatives were to refute and defend him against sexual assault allegations.

But according to a Los Angeles Times report, legal counsel for both the accuser and Bauer agreed to a continuance Friday afternoon. The hearing dates have been rescheduled for August 2, 3 and 19, according to court records.

Bauer, 30, has not been arrested or charged, and he is currently on paid administrative leave through July 27, a designation that baseball commissioner Rob Manfred authorized and which is not disciplinary in nature. But Bauer remains under criminal investigation for assault by Pasadena Police, a department spokeswoman confirmed, and Major League Baseball is conducting a separate, parallel investigation of the 2020 National League Cy Young Award-winner.

Manfred has the authority to discipline any player the league deems has violated the terms of the Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy (implemented in 2015), even if the player isn’t charged with any crimes or convicted. Several baseball sources said that MLB will wait until the criminal investigation of Bauer is completed before Manfred makes any decisions on Bauer’s future, but one league source said Bauer is likely looking at a lengthy suspension from MLB, regardless of how the criminal investigation plays out.

Bauer is in the first year of a three-year contract with the Dodgers for a total $102 million. His 2021 salary is $38 million. A day after his June 28 home start against the San Francisco Giants, Bauer was named in a request for a domestic violence restraining order. The 27-year-old female accuser made a declaration under the penalty of perjury which is attached to the request, which was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

In her declaration, the woman alleges that after meeting Bauer through Instagram, she had two sexual encounters with him at Bauer’s Pasadena home, one in April and the second in May. The woman claims that Bauer choked her to the point of unconsciousness during sex during the first encounter, and had anal sex with her without her consent. During the second alleged sexual encounter, the woman claims Bauer again choked her so that she lost consciousness, and that Bauer punched her in the face during sex, and also punched her elsewhere on her body.

The woman went to Alvarado Hospital Medical Center after the alleged second encounter, and records from that visit are attached to the DVRO request. The woman was diagnosed with “acute head injury” and “assault by manual strangulation,” according to the medical records.

“The medical notes further state that I ‘sustained significant head and facial trauma’ and that there were signs of a basilar skull fracture,” the woman wrote in her declaration.

Bauer’s accuser was granted a temporary ex parte restraining order, meaning the request was filed without any corroboration. Part of a statement Bauer’s agent, Jon Fetterolf, released June 29 said Bauer “had a brief and wholly consensual sexual relationship initiated by [the woman] beginning in April 2021.”

“We have messages that show [the woman] repeatedly asking for “rough” sexual encounters involving requests to be “choked out” and slapped in the face,” Fetterolf’s statement said. “In both of their encounters, [the woman] drove from San Diego to Mr. Bauer’s residence in Pasadena, Calif. 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… 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.”

Once the current administrative leave expires, the league would have to receive consent from the Players Association for an extension. The judge presiding over Friday’s hearing, Dianna Gould-Saltman, kept the temporary restraining order in place, according to court documents.

The LA Times report said Gould-Saltman ruled Bauer will be required to take the witness stand during the hearing, even if the pitcher invokes his Fifth Amendment rights. The report also said both sides will call witnesses to the stand during the hearing. Court records indicate Bauer’s representatives filed motions to quash subpoenas seeking production of Bauer’s social media account records.

Representatives for the accuser’s attorneys — Marc Garelick and Bryan Freedman — and Bauer’s agents — Fetterolf and Rachel Luba — did not respond to email requests following the hearing.

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