LOS ANGELES – While sitting on the witness stand, the woman who accused Trevor Bauer of domestic violence and sexual assault pulled her hair around her neck to show the judge how she alleges the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher strangled her unconscious .
It was one of several emotional moments that took place on the first day of a multi-day hearing to determine whether a temporary restraining order placed against Bauer will become permanent, which in California means up to five years.
The 27-year-old woman testified for about four hours in Los Angeles County Superior Court Monday as Bauer sat quietly in her seat, keeping her attention focused on the judge in front of him. Her lawyers have said that the two sexual encounters between the woman and Bauer were “totally consensual” and have promised to refute her claims “to the full extent of the law.”
The woman, who is not being identified by ESPN because she says she is a victim of sexual assault, was still answering questions from one of her attorneys when court ended around 4:30 p.m. PT. He will resume his testimony when the two parties meet again at 8:30 am PT on Tuesday. Bauer’s attorneys, who began the day seeking a third adjournment, will have an opportunity to cross-examine. The hearing is scheduled until Thursday.
At one point, the woman testified that she was unable to move or speak after Bauer strangled her unconscious during their second encounter on May 16. At the urging of her attorney, she pulled her hair in front of her neck to show how she said Bauer sat down. on his back and pulled “really hard” until he couldn’t breathe.
While describing the other violent acts originally described in the statement attached to her temporary restraining order, most notably how Bauer allegedly put a closed fist on her jaw, vagina, and hips, the woman said: “I didn’t say anything to her, no she said nothing. It was like a rag doll. “
“I was afraid of him,” he said at another time. “I had a lot of pain.”
Bauer is currently under criminal investigation by the Pasadena (California) Police Department and is on administrative leave by Major League Baseball, which is conducting its own investigation into the allegations. Bauer’s license has been extended five separate times with the consent of the MLB Players Association; your last period expires on Friday.
Bauer, the 2020 National League Cy Young Award winner and the highest paid player in 2021, has been out of the Dodgers since July 2. The Dodgers have been quiet about Bauer for the past few weeks. But in an internal email sent to hundreds of team employees Monday afternoon, of which ESPN obtained a copy, Dodgers president Stan Kasten began by writing: “For the past few months, we’ve all been deeply concerned about the accusations against Trevor Bauer. “
Kasten added that the organization has chosen not to comment “to allow the MLB investigation and legal process to proceed without interference,” then added that the organization “takes all allegations of this nature very seriously and does not condone or excuse. no act of violence, domestic violence or sexual assault. “
Kasten also said in the email that the team was “not aware of the temporary restraining order that was issued against Bauer and sealed in Ohio, or of the allegations made in connection with that order, until recent reports.” The Washington Post published an article Saturday in which it claimed that an Ohio woman accused Bauer of beating and strangling her during sex in their three-year relationship and that she filed a petition for a restraining order last summer while Bauer was playing for the Cincinnati Reds, but withdrew the application. six weeks later. Bauer’s agents called the woman’s allegations “categorically false.”
Bauer’s attorneys began the first day of the hearing by asking Judge Dianna Gould-Saltman to dismiss the restraining order. Bauer’s representative, Shawn Holley, argued that the encounters did not qualify as domestic violence or an intimate relationship because the “only acts of violence occurred during sexual intercourse,” which she argued were consensual, and that there is no threat of recurrence of violence. domestic.
Bauer’s lawyers then asked for a postponement, citing pending medical records, deleted social media videos and what they believed were questionable loopholes in the text message exchanges between the woman and two friends, among other concerns. When the judge ordered the case to continue as scheduled, both parties issued lengthy opening statements that, combined, lasted about an hour.
Holley devoted much of her opening statement to text messages sent by the woman to Bauer and members of her inner circle that, according to Bauer’s team, suggest an ulterior motive. He highlighted the woman’s text messages that alluded to wanting to be choked and telling a friend, “I already have my hooks.”
The woman addressed those messages during a lengthy and emotional testimony in which she spoke about her sobriety, her insecurities and a desire for a relationship with Bauer that extended beyond intercourse. She said she had no experience with rough sex, claiming that she had never been drowned unconscious and that she followed in part in an attempt to satisfy Bauer’s wishes.
She added that she was “embarrassed” and “nauseated” after she choked during the first sexual encounter and said she wanted to meet Bauer again in an attempt to “create a better experience where we are both on the same page.”
When he arrived at Bauer’s home after midnight on May 16, the woman testified that he was “doing some kind of treatment on his legs” and “was very excited,” having finished pitching a game that night. She testified that Bauer, who has been very outspoken in recent years against the use of foreign substances by pitchers, told her how he uses the substance Spider Tack. They then went to her room to have sex after a two-hour conversation, she said.
When she woke up after being unconscious again during their second encounter, the woman said that she “felt her knuckles on her jaw,” that “everything was happening so fast” and that she felt so ill that she couldn’t tell Bauer to stop. .
“He was treating me like I wasn’t a human being.”
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