Warning: The following article contains descriptions of explicit sexual assault.
Former MLB pitcher Trevor Bauer has been charged with sexual assault by a fourth woman, according to court documents obtained by ESPN and USA Today, a charge he has reportedly denied.
Bauer is currently playing in Japan for the Yokohama DeNA Baystars after being released by the Los Angeles Dodgers following a record 194-game suspension from MLB for violating the league’s domestic violence and abuse policy. sexual assault. He had previously been accused of sexual assault by three women, the first in California during the 2021 season, then two others in Ohio.
The fourth woman, located in Scottsdale, Arizona, allegedly accused Bauer in his lawsuit against the former Cy Young Award winner of raping her, choking her unconscious, impregnating her and holding a steak knife to her throat in December 2020.
Via USA Today:
“Defendant quickly caught me off guard and held me at knifepoint,” her court filing said. “The defendant placed his serrated steak knife at my throat. I was stunned and dared not move. The defendant asked me, ‘Have you ever been held at knifepoint?’ to which I hesitantly reply, ‘No.’ The accused took a deep breath and exhaled. The defendant’s steak knife clawed at my throat as he released me and I rose from his lap.”
Two days later, she described a more violent encounter with Bauer and said he had raped her.
“Defendant then takes my butterfly braids and uses them as rope to suffocate me unconscious with my hair,” her filing states. “When I was conscious but delirious, I remember being on my back hearing the accused screaming unusual sounds/moans.”
The lawsuit allegedly claims the incidents left the woman bedridden with scalp, neck and head pain. She also reportedly amended her complaint, adding another incident in March 2021 in which Bauer allegedly entered her home, recorded her, stripped naked and confronted her about her pregnancy.
The Arizona woman is reportedly seeking $3.7 million, as well as an apology from “all women whom the defendant humiliated and sexually abused against their consent.”
No criminal charges have reportedly been filed against Bauer for the incident, with Scottsdale police classifying his report as “inactive.” ESPN reported that MLB interviewed the woman but opted not to use her in Bauer’s arbitration hearing.
How Bauer responded to the fourth sexual assault accuser
Bauer reportedly responded with a countersuit in which her legal team accused the woman of fraud, extortion and fabricating her pregnancy. Bauer’s camp was equally aggressive against all of his previous accusers and also sued the media for their handling of the allegations.
In the countersuit, Bauer’s team allegedly said they had a single consensual encounter with the Arizona woman, in which the condom broke during sex. The woman allegedly claimed she was pregnant and demanded $1.6 million from Bauer to terminate the pregnancy, which her lawyers say they recorded.
Bauer claimed he refused to pay the woman and said he would support whatever decision she made and ultimately paid her $8,761 for “alleged pregnancy and her subsequent termination.”
From the United States today:
“Based on (the woman’s) letter of formal notice and the lack of medical records to support her pregnancy or termination, Mr. Bauer now believes that (the woman) fabricated her pregnancy in an attempt to extort money,” his countersuit states.
According to ESPN, her attorneys said the woman used the money for LASIK surgery, which she denied.
The woman reportedly amended her complaint to say she had a miscarriage in April 2021 after deciding not to terminate the pregnancy.
Bauer also disputed the woman’s accusation of confronting her in March 2021, saying he had an audio recording showing it to be false.
Trevor Bauer is still trying to come back to MLB
Bauer’s release from the Dodgers left the team on the hook for the $22.5 million salary it still owed the right-hander, which accounted for most of his salary from the final season of the 102 deal. $.5 million over three years he signed after winning the NL Cy Young in 2020.
At the time of his release, Bauer had not pitched since July 2021. Despite being one of the best pitchers in the league at this point and available for MLB minimum wage, Bauer apparently hasn’t found taker among the 30 teams in the league entering the 2023 season.
Bauer instead signed a one-year, $4 million contract with the Baystars and now has a 4.00 ERA in seven starts, with 56 strikeouts and 10 walks in 45 innings. At one point, he was demoted to the Baystars farm team for an “adjustment start”.
It remains to be seen if a year spent in Japan will change the way MLB teams think of Bauer.