According to a report published yesterday by the Washington Post, an Ohio woman sought a protection order against Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer in June 2020. The Post reports that the woman's request said that she had been sexually assaulted by Bauer and received threatening messages from him.
According to the Post's reporting, the details of what the Ohio woman says happened between her and Bauer are remarkably similar to what was described in a request for a protection order against Bauer that was filed by San Diego woman in June of this year. Like the woman from San Diego, the Ohio woman says that Bauer choked her unconscious during sex and then punched her in the face. The Post obtained photos of the woman that show her with a bruised face and bloodshot eyes, injuries she says Bauer gave to her during the assault. The Post also published several text messages that were apparently sent from Bauer to the woman. In one of those messages, Bauer wrote, "I don’t feel like spending time in jail for killing someone, and that's what would happen if I saw you again." In another message, Bauer threatened to send a video showing he and the woman having sex to one of her family members, only to claim that he was joking after she asked him why he was threatening her.
When reached by the Post, Bauer's representatives, John Fetterolf and Rachel Luba, questioned the validity of the photos and text messages that the Post had obtained, but in one instance the Post caught Fetterolf casting doubt on the authenticity of a message that he had already seemingly acknowledge came from Bauer in previous correspondence with the woman's lawyer.
The Post also obtained copies of messages allegedly from Bauer to the Ohio woman. In one undated Snapchat message, Bauer allegedly wrote: “Like the only reason I’d ever consider seeing you again is to choke you unconscious punch you in the face shove my first up your a-- skull f--- you and kick you out naked. And obviously I would never do something like that to anyone. So cant even enjoy the one thing I sometimes enjoyed with you.”
Fetterolf and Luba said they “strongly call into question the validity” of the Snapchat messages, to which they said Bauer no longer has access.
But in correspondence with the woman’s lawyer last year, obtained by The Post, Fetterolf did not challenge the authenticity of the same Snapchat message. Instead, he pointed to the woman’s response to the message: “Kind of hot I bother you that much aw.” Fetterolf, who became Bauer’s agent and lawyer following the 2019 season, called the response evidence that Bauer’s message “caused her no distress at all.”
Washington Post
In their communications with the Post, Luba and Fetterolf defended Bauer much the same way they did against the San Diego woman's allegations. They claimed that that Bauer and the Ohio woman's relationship was wholly consensual, that the woman is acting in a threatening and defamatory manner, and that her only motivation is to try and extort money from Bauer.
After the Post published their story, Bauer released a statement on Twitter in which he accused the paper of creating a "false narrative" and tried to describe the basic tenets of reporting as some sort of inappropriately invasive process:
While I have allowed my representatives to speak on my behalf over the last six weeks, I can no longer be silent. I will speak very candidly about the current petition when appropriate, but need to address the allegations made today in The Washington Post. pic.twitter.com/VhDNQyM1cb
— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) August 14, 2021
Luba also released an additional statement on Twitter, in which she implied that the Ohio woman is only seeking "publicity/money."
PS: I’ve enabled comments on this for all you people desperately wanting to say mean things to me all month—so have at it! 👍🏻
— Rachel Luba (@AgentRachelLuba) August 14, 2021
The Post's full story can be read here.
