Woman says Bauer strangled her unconscious

Editor’s note: This story contains graphic descriptions of sexual assault allegations.

Los Angeles Dodgers star Trevor Bauer strangled a woman he was having sex with until she lost consciousness on multiple occasions, repeatedly punched her in the face during sex and left her with injuries that required hospitalization, the woman said in a domestic violence restraining order filed against Bauer on Monday.

In a copy of the ex parte order obtained by ESPN, the woman, 27, said: “I am deeply concerned that no arrest has been made or charges filed.” While asking the court to issue a no-contact order that would prevent Bauer from coming within 100 yards of her, the woman provided graphic details of two meetings with Bauer and photographs that show two black eyes, scratches on her face and bruised and cut lips.

She said that the first time she and Bauer met, he used her hair to choke her unconscious. When she awoke, she said, he was penetrating her anally. About three weeks after their first meeting at his home in Pasadena, California, she agreed to return. In that meeting, she said, he punched her in the face, vagina and buttocks and left her with what doctors called “significant head and facial trauma.”

“I agreed to have consensual sex,” the woman said in a declaration given under the penalty of perjury. “However I did not agree or consent to what he did next. I did not agree to be sexually assaulted.”

Pasadena police continue to investigate the alleged assaults, which took place April 21 and May 16. The ex parte order is temporary and does not allow the other party the opportunity to respond.

Bauer plans to refute the account during a July 23 hearing, according to his representatives. On Tuesday, they had issued a statement denying that Bauer had assaulted the woman, calling their encounters “wholly consensual.” Bauer’s representatives also provided a series of messages that he says show the woman inviting rough sex and talking about how she wants him to “gimme all the pain” and “choke me out.”

Major League Baseball has opened an investigation into Bauer under its joint domestic violence policy with the players’ union, sources told ESPN. MLB can place him on a paid, seven-day administrative leave, but given that no arrests have been made and Bauer denies the assault allegations, the league is expected to wait for either the police investigation or its internal investigation to play out before taking action.

Bauer, who signed a three-year, $102 million contract with the Dodgers in February and is being paid $40 million this year after winning the 2020 National League Cy Young Award, was informed of the order on Monday, the morning of his last start.

The woman’s declaration, first made public by The Athletic on Wednesday, begins April 18, when she tagged Bauer in an Instagram post. He sent her a direct message, and they agreed to meet at his house. After talking for hours, she said, they retreated to Bauer’s bedroom, where they began having sex. Bauer, she said, started pulling her hair and put his fingers down her throat “in an aggressive manner.” She asked him to stop.

Without asking in advance, she says, he wrapped her long hair around her neck and choked her until she passed out. The woman said she woke up face down on the bed to Bauer assaulting her from behind. “It was extremely painful,” she said, adding that she later had anal bleeding. The next morning, the woman said, Bauer asked: “You feeling a little sore this morning?”

They continued to communicate. In a series of texts provided by Bauer’s representatives — and not shown in the woman’s exhibits in the protective order — she responded affirmatively to a question from Bauer about being choked until losing consciousness. The woman did the same when Bauer referenced slapping her in the face.

A week later, she went to Pasadena for the second time. He asked her, she said, for a safe word — a word she could use if she was uncomfortable during sex. He asked her, she said, what was off limits. She told him no fingers in her throat.

The woman said Bauer wrapped her hair around her neck and choked her unconscious again. When she awoke, she said, “Trevor began punching my face. This was the first punch I felt but it is very possible that Trevor had already been punching and scratching the right side of my face while I was unconscious.”

Bauer followed, she said, with closed-fist punches to the left side of her jaw, the left side of her head and both cheekbones. The woman said she was “frozen and terrified” and “could not speak or move.” He choked her again, she said, and punched her in the vagina. She said she started “crying and violently shaking,” at which point Bauer said: “You’re safe. I’m here. You’re safe.” He later added, according to her account: “I would never do those things to you if it wasn’t sexually.”

The woman eventually left with two black eyes and a swollen jaw and cheekbones. Scratches marked her face. A bump formed on the left side of her head. Her upper lip split. A dark bruise marked her lower lip. Bruises showed on her vagina and buttocks — the latter from punches she said he admitted to throwing when she was passed out: “You have a couple welts. I need to be more careful where I hit you. I also punched your butt while you were unconscious so you may have a bruise there.”

On May 17, the day after the alleged assault, the woman went to the emergency room and was diagnosed with “acute head injury” and “assault by manual strangulation.” San Diego police spoke with her. The woman said she “attempted to downplay what occurred out of concern for my privacy and what my statements might lead to.” She told police she didn’t want to file charges.

A day later, police from Pasadena questioned her. She drove to Pasadena on May 21, at the police’s behest, to call Bauer and get him to admit to what she said he did while being recorded. She asked him what he did while she was unconscious, the order said, and he admitted to punching her repeatedly in the buttocks. When she said, “I didn’t ask to be punched” and “this was not a free for all,” Bauer “attempted to change the subject.”

In Bauer’s statement, he denied assaulting the woman, whose name ESPN is withholding because she says she’s a sexual assault victim.

The statement said: “Mr. 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. 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.

“Mr. Bauer and [the woman] have not corresponded in over a month and have not seen each other in over 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.”

Since the alleged assaults, the order said, the woman was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress and is “absolutely terrified of what will happen when all of this becomes public because he is a large public figure. Trevor has a large following of loyal fans who I fear will threaten me and resort to social media bashing. I am concerned about my safety.”

She went public anyway, she said, because “as the shock has worn off, I recognize the seriousness of the sexual assault I endured. I do not want Trevor to put anyone else through what I suffered.”

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