Trevor Bauer’s Criminal Case Concludes With No Charges Filed Against Him; MLB Investigation Still Open

After a five-month review of pitcher Trevor Bauer’s criminal case, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office announced Tuesday that it would not seek charges against the Dodgers pitcher.

“After a thorough review of all the available evidence, including the civil restraining order proceedings, witness statements and the physical evidence, the People are unable to prove the relevant charges beyond a reasonable doubt,” reads the D.A. office’s comments in its declination.

In June of last year, a San Diego woman claimed in her initial request for a temporary restraining order against Bauer that she had two sexual encounters with him at his Pasadena home in 2021, one in April and a second in May.

Among the allegations the woman made in a declaration attached to the request were that Bauer choked her until she was unconscious during sex multiple times; that Bauer sodomized her without her consent; and that Bauer punched her in the face during sex, and elsewhere on her body. She also claimed that she was hospitalized as a result of her second encounter with Bauer.

After the woman was granted the temporary restraining order, Bauer’s agent and attorney, Jon Fetterolf, said in a statement that Bauer “had a brief and wholly consensual sexual relationship initiated by [the woman] beginning in April 2021.”

Fetterolf also said that Bauer and his legal team had messages that “show [the woman] repeatedly asking for “rough” sexual encounters involving requests to be “choked out” and slapped in the face.”

Pasadena (California) Police launched an investigation of Bauer last summer, while Major League Baseball opened its own separate investigation of the Dodgers pitcher.

In August 2021, Judge Dianna Gould-Saltman ruled that the San Diego woman’s “initial declaration” in her restraining order request “was materially misleading.” Gould-Saltman dissolved the temporary restraining order and denied the San Diego woman’s request for a permanent restraining order. Bauer did not testify during the four-day restraining order hearing, held in Los Angeles Superior Court.

“We have expected this outcome since the petition was filed in June,” Bauer’s attorney Shawn Holley said outside the courthouse last August after Gould-Saltman’s ruling. “But we appreciate the court reviewing all the relevant information and testimony to make this informed decision.”

Pasadena Police turned the case over to the L.A. County D.A.’s office on August 27, 2021.

Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos said last month that he thought it would be “awfully difficult to bring a criminal case when a Superior Court judge has already ruled on the lower civil standard that there isn’t enough to issue a permanent protective order.”

Now that Bauer’s criminal matter is concluded, he awaits whether or not he will be disciplined by baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, who has authority to punish players the league determines have violated the joint domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse agreement, even if they are not arrested or charged.

“MLB’s investigation is ongoing and we will comment further at the appropriate time,” the league said in a statement Tuesday, as reported by multiple outlets.

Bauer, 31, has never been arrested nor charged, and he last pitched June 28, 2021.

Four days after that outing, he was placed on paid administrative leave by Manfred, and the non-disciplinary designation was extended multiple times throughout the 2021 season. The right-hander did not pitch the last three months of the ‘21 regular season, nor in the playoffs.

Last year was the first of a three-year contract with the Dodgers Bauer signed for a total $102 million. His 2021 salary was $38 million.

Since MLB’s joint domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse agreement was first implemented in 2015, no player disciplined for violating the policy has appealed, which players have the right to do. Multiple baseball sources have said that Bauer could be facing a lengthy suspension from Manfred — at least a year, possibly longer — and if that occurs, the pitcher could appeal the punishment by filing a grievance.

The matter would then go to an arbitration hearing where both sides — Bauer and his counsel and the MLB Players Association on one side and the league on the other — would present their case and an independent arbitrator would then render a decision.

Bauer posted a seven-minute and 11-second video to YouTube Tuesday following the D.A.’s announcement, and while Bauer confirms he and the San Diego woman “engaged in rough sex,” Bauer vehemently denies sexually assaulting her.

“I’d like to set the record straight on what actually happened. I had consensual sex with this woman on two occasions at my residence in Pasadena, during which we engaged in rough sex,” Bauer says in the YouTube clip, which is titled, “The Truth.”

“This is something that she brought up, we discussed together, and both agreed to engage in. We established rules and boundaries and I followed them,” Bauer says in the clip. “While this is not the time or the place to address every single lie or falsehood that this woman or her lawyers made to the court, I do want to be crystal clear about a few things. I never punched this woman in the face. I never punched her in the vagina. I never scratched her face. I never had anal sex with her or sodomized her in any way. I never assaulted her in any way at any time. While we did have consensual rough sex, the disturbing acts and conduct that she described simply did not occur.”

Attorneys and a spokesman representing the San Diego woman did not return requests for comment Tuesday. According to ESPN, the Dodgers declined comment.

“I’m relieved to finally be able to share the truth with you,” Bauer says at the end of his YouTube clip. “Thanks for hearing me out and I’ll see you all soon.”