Judge denies woman restraining order against Dodgers’ Trevor Bauer
FILE – In this June 6, 2021, file photo, Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Trevor Bauer delivers in the first inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves in Atlanta. An attorney for Bauer told a judge that the Dodgers pitcher had every reason to believe that a woman wanted the rough treatment he gave her in two sexual encounters that led to her seeking a five-year restraining order against him. Lawyer Shawn Holley made the argument at a hearing Monday, Aug. 16, 2021, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles judge sided with Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer on Thursday and denied a restraining order to a woman who said he choked her into unconsciousness and punched her repeatedly during two sexual encounters.
In denying the order after a four-day hearing, Judge Dianna Gould-Saltman said that according to the 27-year-old San Diego woman’s testimony, Bauer followed her boundaries when she set them, and he couldn’t know the boundaries she didn’t express to him.
“We consider in a sexual encounter that when a woman says no she should be believed,” Gould-Saltman said, “so what should we do when she says yes?”
The judge said the woman’s petition asking for the domestic violence restraining order was “materially misleading.”
Bauer had no visible reaction to the decision.
It was a major victory for Bauer in his public fight to clear his name, but police and Major League Baseball are still looking into the incident.
MLB put Bauer on paid administrative leave on July 2, and it has been extended through Friday.
And police in Pasadena, California, are still investigating.
The woman’s attorney declined to comment outside court.
Most of the hearing consisted of testimony from the woman herself, along with brief appearances on the stand from the nurse who gave her a sexual assault exam after the second encounter earlier this year, a doctor called by Bauer’s team to analyze those findings and the woman’s best friend.
The woman’s lawyer, Lisa Helfend Meyer, said during her closing argument Thursday that Bauer went well beyond consent when he choked the woman into unconsciousness and punched her repeatedly during sex. Meyer said she applauded her client for being “able to stand up to this monster and do the right thing.”
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they have been victims of sexual assault.
Bauer’s lawyer, Shawn Holley, cast him as someone who is clear about what he wants, and did nothing without her consent.
We are here “because of the lies she told Trevor, and ultimately because of the lies she told herself,” Holley said.
The judge ruled earlier in the day that Bauer did not need to testify after he said he would invoke the Fifth Amendment for virtually every question he may be asked.
Normally in civil matters, a witness would invoke the Fifth Amendment on a question-by-question basis.
