The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office announced on Tuesday that Dodgers starting pitcher Trevor Bauer won’t face criminal charges after a five-month review of sexual assault allegations against him.
Bauer, 31, can still be reprimanded by Major League Baseball under its domestic violence and sexual assault policy. MLB’s investigation into Bauer is ongoing, the league announced in a statement shortly after the court’s decision.
The allegations against Bauer came from a San Diego woman who had two sexual encounters with the Dodgers ace in Pasadena last year. The district attorney determined that there is not sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Bauer committed a crime.
According to The Los Angeles Times, the DA’s office made the decision after reviewing electronic messages between Bauer, the Pasadena police’s investigation and a transcript of the civil restraining order proceedings from last August.
In a video released Tuesday, Bauer denied all of the accusations, maintaining the two encounters were consensual.
Bauer, who signed with the Dodgers last offseason, started 17 games for LAD. He last pitched on June 28, one day before the San Diego woman obtained a temporary restraining order against him — an order that a judge lifted because Bauer wasn’t likely to harm or have any contact with the accuser. MLB put Bauer on administrative leave for the last 81 games of the season, plus the postseason. The Dodgers eliminated San Francisco in the NLDS in five games.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred can still suspend a player for violating the league’s domestic violence policy even without a charge or conviction in the court of law. It’s unlikely any action happens during the lockout.
League policy defines sexual assault as: “a range of behaviors, including a completed nonconsensual sex act, an attempted nonconsensual sex act, and/or nonconsensual sexual contact. Lack of consent is inferred when a person uses force, harassment, threat of force, threat of adverse personnel or disciplinary action, or other coercion, or when the victim is asleep, incapacitated, unconscious or legally incapable of consent.”
The accuser also has the right to file a civil suit against Bauer, which carries a lighter burden of proof. The woman provided medical records to the court showing doctors had diagnosed her with an “acute head injury” and “assault by manual strangulation” following a sexual encounter. She testified that Bauer choked her with her own hair and punched her in the face and vagina while she was unconscious.
Bauer and his agents have denied those accusations. The judge who lifted the restraining order said she had been “materially misleading” in parts of her written testimony to the court.
Separately, the Washington Post reported that an Ohio woman sought a temporary order of protection after repeated threats from Bauer in 2020. She made similar allegations and has cooperated with MLB’s investigation. Bauer’s agents dismissed those accusations as “categorically false.”
Per the LA Times, MLB has suspended 14 players over the six years of the domestic violence policy, with suspensions ranging from 15 to 162 games.