Trevor Bauer's attorneys release text messages from his accuser

Dodgers pitcher puts his hand to his ear as he walks off the field

Aug. 3, 2021 10:48 PM PT

Lawyers for Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer on Tuesday attempted to counter a woman’s accusation that Bauer sexually assaulted her by releasing text messages the woman exchanged with Bauer and others.

Bauer was put on leave by Major League Baseball on July 2 after the woman received a temporary restraining order against him and her assault allegations became public. In seeking the restraining order, the woman has acknowledged in court papers that she consented to having sex with Bauer but has accused him of going far beyond her comfort zone, saying he choked her unconscious and then abused her on a night in May. She also alleges he sodomized her without her consent during an earlier encounter in April, according to court records.

For the record:

11:15 a.m. Aug. 11, 2021

A previous version of this story said Bauer’s accuser wrote in a text message, “I didn’t like the two black eyes??” In fact, the accuser wrote that she “like didnt expect two black eyes!?”

And a previous version of this story stated inaccurately that Bauer’s accuser said in a court record that she had suffered facial fractures after being punched by Bauer. In fact, the woman alleged in the court record that she had shown “signs of a basilar skull fracture.” Bauer’s attorneys later filed medical records in court, including the results of a scan of the woman’s head that doctors said showed “no acute fracture.”

Bauer’s legal team had aggressively challenged the accusations, saying all encounters between them were consensual. The texts were filed publicly in Los Angeles County Superior Court as Bauer, 30, opposed the woman’s request for a restraining order against him.

It’s unclear how many texts between the two exist and how Bauer’s legal team came to select the ones it placed in the court file.

The texts include messages the woman exchanged with Bauer and a friend after the April encounter, in which the woman said she had enjoyed being with Bauer and expressed an interest in seeing him again.

But the messages also discuss the injuries the woman said she received at Bauer’s hand.

In one text exchange between the woman and her cousin after the incident in May, she attached a photo of her injured face.

In response to the photo, the cousin wrote, “As long as it is consensual, I don’t have to kill him.”

The woman replied, “It was consensual, but I didn’t like expect two black eyes!? Look, he (definitely) took it too far. don’t you think lol.”

The Times is not identifying the woman because she is an alleged victim of sexual assault.

Bryan Freedman, an attorney for the woman, dismissed the new filing, saying that “Mr. Bauer’s defense team is deliberately twisting the tone of text messages exchanged with an assault victim within hours of her being attacked to try to minimize the long-lasting impact on her physical and mental well-being to this day.”

In a statement, he added: “In case after case, the law is extraordinarily clear: supposed ‘consent’ of the victim is not a defense to assault and battery, especially when it results in bodily harm, but, to be clear, this victim did not consent to be punched in her face, punched in her head, punched in her buttocks or repeatedly punched in her vagina.”

Bauer has not been arrested or charged with a crime. Police in Pasadena have said they are investigating the woman’s allegations.

In her request for the temporary restraining order, Bauer’s accuser provided a written statement that in May he choked her to the point that she lost consciousness and that after the encounter she showed “signs of a basilar skull fracture.”

“I remember this vividly as it was very startling and painful,” the woman wrote in her sworn statement. When she regained consciousness, she said, she “had a terrible pain behind both of my ears” and “tasted blood in my mouth.”

Bauer’s attorneys later filed medical records in court, including the results of a scan of the woman’s head that doctors said showed “no acute fracture.”

A few days later, the woman said, she had two black eyes, a swollen jaw, swollen cheekbones, a split lip, and bruising near her vagina, on her gums and on her head. Pictures of her face included in the court filing show bruising under her eyes and a scab on her lip, as well as swelling on her jaw and cheekbone.

The day after the May encounter with Bauer, the woman said in court filings, a friend took her to Alvarado Hospital Medical Center in San Diego. She said she underwent scans of her brain, face and neck and told hospital doctors and psychiatrists what happened. The woman “appears to have suffered significant head and facial trauma,” the records show.

But Bauer attorney Shawn Holley, in a court filing Tuesday, said the text messages offer a clearer sense of the relationship between the woman and Bauer.

After previous texts were released by Bauer’s representatives, Freedman said that “any suggestion that she was not the victim of assault is not only false and defamatory but, in fact, perpetuates the abuse.”

Bauer is on paid administrative leave through Friday. Any extension is subject to the agreement of the league and players’ association. This season, he is the highest-paid pitcher in Major League Baseball and was a reliable starting pitcher for the Dodgers all season, his first with the team after signing a three-year, $102-million deal as a free agent last winter. His absence severely hampered the Dodgers’ starting rotation until July 30, when they traded for Max Scherzer, a three-time Cy Young Award winner who will offset Bauer’s absence.

The Dodgers have already removed all merchandise with Bauer’s name on it from the team’s stores, and none of the players have offered any public words of support for Bauer since the accusations became public.

Times staff writer Steve Henson contributed to this report.

The National Sexual Assault Hotline can be reached 24 hours a day at (800) 656-4673.

Full coverage: Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer accused of sexual assault