LOS ANGELES — A woman seeking a five-year restraining order against Trevor Bauer testified Wednesday that the satisfaction she expressed to friends when the case first went public was a reaction to her treatment by the media, not happiness that she was taking down the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher.
“It felt good to not see me slut-shamed right off the bat,” said the 27-year-old San Diego woman, who alleges that Bauer choked her until she was unconscious and punched her repeatedly in two sexual encounters earlier this year.
Bauer’s attorney Shawn Holley, cross-examining the woman who was on the witness stand in Los Angeles Superior Court for a third day, read from text messages the woman had sent to friends when court documents were first filed in late June. Holley’s questioning suggested she was not seeking protection, but to hurt Bauer.
“Media is freaking out. On my side,” one of the woman’s texts read. “It’s the best thing I could have hoped for.”
Holley asked, “What does the media freaking out have to do with your safety?”
The woman replied that she had felt Bauer’s team had shamed her with its statement saying all that had happened between the two was wholly consensual, and she was happy to see that the media, and the public on social media, were not attacking her.
The woman was granted a temporary restraining order until a hearing could be held and evidence presented, as is common in such cases.
A few days after she filed the documents, Major League Baseball put Bauer, 30, on paid administrative leave that has been extended through Friday. MLB is investigating the allegations and Bauer could face punishment under baseball’s domestic violence policy. Police in Pasadena, California, where Bauer lives and where the two spent nights together in April and May, are also investigating.
Bauer, who is fighting the restraining order, sat in court and listened to the woman’s testimony, occasionally taking notes and conferring with his attorneys but showing no visible reaction. He is expected to take the stand later in the hearing, which will continue Thursday and might stretch longer.
Holley, Bauer’s attorney, asked the woman why she felt she needed protection from Bauer when he had made no contact with her in nearly a month when she filed for the order.
“That was what worried me,” the woman replied, saying Bauer’s silence after constantly checking on her in the days following the second incident made her fear he was planning something and might seek her out in San Diego.
“Did you have some reason to believe he was going to come to your house 130 miles away?” Holley asked.
“Yes, I did,” she said.
Holley also pointed out lies that the woman acknowledged telling her closest friends in texts about when and where the meetings with Bauer happened.
The woman said that one friend had warned her not to go to Bauer’s home in Pasadena, so she told her the first encounter happened in San Diego. Another friend was one of her bosses, the woman said, and she had to lie about the timing of the second Bauer night because she had called in sick.
Holley also asked the woman why she had acknowledged in messages that she was watching Bauer’s games despite saying she wanted nothing to do with him.
“You have testified previously that you had to delete all your communications with him, but you still wanted to watch him pitch, right?” Holley asked.
“Possibly,” the woman answered.
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they have been victims of sexual assault.
Bauer agreed to a $102 million, three-year contract to join his hometown Dodgers earlier this year after winning his first Cy Young with the Cincinnati Reds last season.