LOS ANGELES — An L.A. Superior Court judge denied a restraining order request filed by a woman who accused Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer of sexual assault following four days of emotional testimony.
Judge Dianna Gould-Saltman said there was a distinction between what the accuser thought and what she communicated to Bauer.
“When she set boundaries, [Bauer] respected them,” the judge told the courtroom following closing arguments.
While ruling that Bauer and his accuser did have a “dating relationship” under the law — a condition for issuing a restraining order — the judge said she did not consider Bauer a threat to the woman.
With Bauer standing silently by her side, attorney Shawn Holley made a brief statement to the media outside the courthouse. Neither Holley nor Bauer took questions.
“We are grateful to the Los Angeles Superior Court for denying the request for a permanent restraining order and dissolving the temporary restraining order against Mr. Bauer today,” Holley said. “While we have expected this outcome since the petition was filed in June, we appreciate the Court reviewing all relevant information and testimony to make this informed decision.”
Gould-Saltman ruled that Bauer “did not coerce her or threaten her into sexual activity.” She said testimony established that the accuser’s Instagram direct messages and text messages to Bauer indicated to him that she “wanted rough sex in the first encounter and rougher sex in the second.”
The woman said during her 12 hours of testimony during the hearing that she engaged in two consensual sexual encounters with Bauer, and her attorneys argued that when Bauer punched her repeatedly in face, vagina and buttocks during the second encounter, it constituted assault.
After asking why she waited to get a restraining order — to which the woman replied that she wasn’t convinced Bauer would be arrested and wanted to seek protection for herself — her lawyer asked what had changed in her life.
“I lost my job, I lost my place of residence, I had to take a leave from my other job,” she said. “It’s still hard to fall asleep. ... I’ve lost over 10 pounds. And just the sadness I had to live with every day, and the fear I have of Trevor Bauer, it’s brutal.”
Bauer’s legal team presented a series of text messages suggesting the woman sought out and encouraged Bauer’s rough physical contact with her. The attorneys also noted Bauer had no contact with her in the month leading up to her restraining order request.
The ruling does not necessarily mean discipline from Major League Baseball is imminent. For now, MLB and police investigations of Bauer continue, with the focus not on whether Bauer should be restrained from contacting accuser, but on whether his conduct alleged by the accuser merits criminal charges or MLB suspension.
Bauer’s paid leave from the Dodgers expires Friday. If Bauer and the players’ union decline to agree to the league’s request to extend the leave, as the parties have five times previously, then MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred could levy an unpaid suspension based on the evidence MLB has collected, plus what it has learned in the hearing.
But the possibility that Bauer still could be charged with a crime means that the league has not been able to conduct its own interview with him. The domestic violence policy requires Bauer to submit to an interview with MLB as part of a league investigation. If Manfred were to have to levy a suspension now, he would do so without having heard from Bauer.
If Bauer and the union decline to extend the leave, Manfred also could let the Dodgers discipline him, at which point the team could reinstate him, cut him and pay off the balance of his $102 million contract, or cut him and force him to file a grievance, in which an arbitrator would decide whether Bauer would get all or some of that money.
———
Los Angeles Times staff writers Bill Shaikin and Ethan Sears contributed to this report.
