A woman has been denied a permanent restraining order against Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer after she accused him of domestic violence and sexual assault.
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled against the 27-year-old woman’s request Thursday, and the temporary restraining order against Bauer has been dissolved.
The woman says Bauer strangled her unconscious three times with her own hair and punched her in the face, buttocks and genitals during a sexual encounter earlier this year. The Pasadena (Calif.) Police Department is conducting an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations of domestic violence and sexual assault stemming from two sexual encounters that took place between Bauer and the woman on April 21 and May 16.
The judge ruled that Bauer does not pose a threat to the woman and that her injuries were not the result of anything she verbally objected to.
Earlier Thursday, it was determined that Bauer would not testify in the four-day hearing after his attorneys said that the pitcher planned to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights if he took the stand.
Bauer’s attorneys have contended that the encounters were “wholly consensual,” in part because the woman texted Bauer “gimme all the pain” and indicated she wanted to be choked out before she returned to Bauer’s house in May. But in her testimony Wednesday, the woman said: “To me, text messages do not mean consent. I did not consent to hurting all over my body and being put in the hospital and having things done to me when I was unconscious. That is not consensual.”
The woman, whom ESPN is not naming because she has reported she is a victim of sexual assault, spent more than nine hours over three days testifying about what happened during the encounters and the events that surrounded them.
Bauer has been on administrative leave by MLB and the players’ association since July 2 while investigators look into the allegations. His leave, which has been extended five times, is slated to expire Friday. Bauer is the highest-paid player in MLB this year, earning nearly $40 million, and he won the 2020 National League Cy Young Award while pitching for the Cincinnati Reds.
Information from ESPN’s Tisha Thompson and Alden Gonzalez was used in this report.