'Never said that I wanted to be punched': Trevor Bauer's sex assault accuser called him for police in 2021. Here's the 27-minute recording.
Police were with Hill during the call, which has never been public until now. It was evidence in a lawsuit and counterclaim that included info about other accusers.
Click here for a transcript of the recording.
Before their sexual encounters became national news, the woman who accused Major League Baseball pitcher Trevor Bauer of rape asked him about their agreed-upon “boundaries” and the punching she described as unwanted and too violent.
“I really do appreciate all your sweet messages and stuff and, like, they do make me better. … The thing for me is, like, it’s kind of like blurry for me, obviously, because I was like coming out of, like, in and out of consciousness. So I did ask you to hit me?” Lindsey Hill asked the then-Los Angeles Dodgers star in a May 22, 2021, phone call covertly recorded by the Pasadena Police Department with Hill’s cooperation.
Bauer paused before saying softly, “Yeah.”
Hill grimaced through a sigh and said, “Oh yeah. OK.”
“I’m trying to wrap my head around it because obviously, like, I’m in a lot of pain, and I don’t remember, like, specifically asking you to, like, hit me. Like, did you mean to hit me that hard?” Hill asked as two police deceives sat beside her.
Bauer mumbled, “No” before saying, “and like, that’s why it’s confusing. I didn’t feel like I hit you that hard, you know? And certainly, like, I tried telling you multiple times, ‘Do you want to stop? Are you OK?’ And, like, you said to keep going. So I just was trying to follow your lead on it.”
Hill later said she wanted them to “accept boundaries and, like, move forward, but, like, for my own peace of mind, like, I just have to communicate, like, I never, like, said it was a free for all.” She referenced her hospitalization and said “it’s just been a lot.” Bauer replied that he didn’t want to hurt her.
“We, like, checked multiple times about having a safe word and, like, and all that, like, I thought that it was, like — I thought you were OK. I would check multiple times like, ‘Hey are you OK? You want to stop or not?’ You said no. So, like, I was — that was kinda my way of, like, trying to make sure that we weren’t crossing any boundaries.”
Hill told him later in the call that she didn’t remember him asking her if she was OK, and “we never, like, talked about, like, punching, you know?”
“Like getting punched and that kind of thing, which resulted in the black eyes, and like the head stuff,” Hill said, referring to her concussion. She continued, “I just, like, I don’t know. I never like thought that that’s, like, what it was gonna be, you know? Because we just, like, hadn’t, like, talked about that.”
“Yeah, I understand that for sure,” Bauer said. He said a few minutes later, “I never wanted to get to that point … I will never get to that point again, I promise. … I know that doesn’t change anything. Like, I’m hurting too, and this, like, I know you’re experiencing it much more than I am.”
The 27-minute, May 22, 2021, recording has never been heard publicly beyond the police investigation that resulted in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declining to pursue criminal charges against Bauer. Hill provided a copy to Legal Affairs and Trials as news spread that she and Bauer had reached a settlement that involves neither paying the other anything. Hill will receive $300,000 from her own insurance coverage, which her lawyer called “an outstanding resolution.”
“Neither Lindsey nor anyone on her behalf paid anything to Bauer. Not a single dollar,” according to a written statement from Bryan J. Freedman of Freedman & Taitelman LLP in Los Angeles. “Even better, Lindsey received $300,000 from her insurance company. Based on that payment, Lindsey agreed to settle the lawsuit. Now that the lawsuit is over, Lindsey looks forward to helping others.”
UPDATE 10/6: Bauer’s lawyers released the following statement regarding the call.
Bauer said in a video posted on social media that he “never sexually assaulted Lindsey Hill or anyone else for that matter.”
He displayed text messages obtained through the discovery process in which Hill tells a friend before meeting Bauer, “Next victim. Star pitcher for the dodgers” and asks “What should I steal?”, to which her friend replies, “Take his money.” She also told a friend, “need daddy to choke me out” and “Being an absolute WHORE to try to get in on his 51 million.” Bauer also said Hill’s Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor asked her if she feels a little guilty and she replied, “Not really.”
Bauer also played a video from Hill’s phone that his lawyers obtained through Pasadena police of Hill smirking at the camera while panning to Bauer, who is sleeping with his eyes covered. It was taken after their final encounter, which Bauer said was consensual but Hill said escalated into unexpected violence that caused her to lose consciousness and wake to Bauer having anal sex with her. She went to a hospital, where a doctor said she showed signs of a skull fracture but determined she didn’t actually have one.
Bauer said Monday that Hill’s video, which he first shared on social media in September 2022, “paints a pretty clear picture of what actually happened the evening of May 15 and why the video was originally concealed from us.” He said the video shows Hill with no marks on her face, though according to court documents, Hill later sent him a photo of her face that showed bruising and cuts.
Bauer’s remarks drew the attention of billionaire Elon Musk, who replied, “Were her lawyers aware that she withheld evidence?” through his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Bauer was referring to the fact that Hill didn’t give him the video before the hearing on her restraining order request. He later obtained it through the Pasadena police in the standard discovery process for his federal lawsuit. Hill cited attorney-client privilege in her Aug. 29 deposition when asked about not initially disclosing it, according to an email from Bauer’s lawyer to her lawyers. Bauer’s lawyers argued attorney-client privilege didn’t apply because the video was withheld in violation of California law “and in order to perpetuate a fraud.”
In a Sept. 11 declaration, Freedman said Hill sent him the video on July 5, 2021, but he assumed her lawyers in the restraining order hearing already had it and didn’t send it to them. Hill also provided the video to Pasadena police, which is how Bauer ultimately obtained it.
But the video and texts weren’t the only major evidence that jurors could have seen had the case gone to trial.
In June, U.S. Magistrate Judge Autumn D. Spaeth ordered Bauer to turn over all information related to his Major League Baseball suspension. She also rejected Bauer’s motion to quash document and deposition subpoenas for four women about alleged sexual assaults, one of whom testified in the MLB investigation and provided two videos of the alleged assaults.
Problems quickly arose: Up until Monday’s dismissal, Hill’s lawyers had been trying to get the woman who testified in the MLB proceeding held in contempt of court after she didn’t show up for her Aug. 17 deposition. (The woman is represented by prominent attorney Joe Tacopina, whose other clients include Donald Trump.) They also were trying to get Spaeth to order Bauer to give them the transcript and video from the woman’s MLB testimony.
‘He would’ve said a lot of different things’
The recorded phone call appeared to be key to both her defense of Bauer’s defamation claims and her pursuit of sexual battery claims against him.
Hill’s lawyers questioned Bauer about it when he was under oath for his deposition on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 in Yokohama, Japan, where he’s currently playing baseball for the Yokohama DeNA Baystars. Bauer’s lawyer Shawn Holley, a longtime celebrity criminal defense lawyer in Los Angeles, traveled to Japan to advise him in person while Hill’s lawyers questioned him remotely via video.
According to a summary prepared by Hill’s team, Bauer denied punching Hill and said he was confused when she told him in the call that he did, but he didn’t want to discuss every detail during the call, which occurred while he was on a Los Angeles Dodgers team bus.
“Looking back on it now he would’ve said a lot of different things. In the moment he was trying to understand what was going on and was confused. He can’t say why he didn’t say this or didn’t say that,” according to the summary, which Hill provided to Legal Affairs and Trials along with the recording of her call with Bauer.
Hill’s lawyers also summarized Bauer’s answers about strangulation.
Hill started the call warmly by asking Bauer about his win with the Dodgers over the San Francisco Giants the night before. She told Legal Affairs and Trials this week that two Pasadena police detectives were sitting next to her during the call, and they wrote down questions for her to ask Bauer through the call.
In the call, Hill told Bauer, “I’m having a tough time with all of that and just kind of like, trying to process, like, how it even happened. You know what I mean?”
Bauer said he was “trying to figure that out, too. … I know you asked me to hit you and we had a safe word and all this different stuff, but I still just can’t figure out how the result was what it was, you know? I just wonder if there’s any way I can help. I want to make sure that you’re OK,” Bauer continued. “I would never do that to you outside of like, like, what we had talked about, you know? Like, do you know that?”
“Yeah, no, I do and I appreciate — ” Hill said. That’s when she asked Bauer if she asked him to hit her and Bauer mumbled, “Yeah.”
Bauer went on to say that hurting her “was never the point of it, you know?” He referenced their “text conversation” in which she “said something about, like, slapping in the face and, like, whatever else I wanted and stuff like that and, like, I feel like that’s kind of what, what happened and I just wanted to check on you.”
“We had the conversation about that kind of being your way of, like, escaping and just kind of, like, letting go,” Bauer said.
Hill replied that she knows “it’s, not like, easy to talk about, but like, I just appreciate you talking to me about it because like I like love spending time with you.”
“And I like want to keep spending time with you know, so like I just want to, like, communicate about it. So like for like next time and like when I'm around you like I just like don't have to like think about it and like understand your like intention but like, yeah, I mean, for me, it was just confusing,” she said.
She referenced her trip to the hospital and “the two black eyes and like a swollen jaw” and said she has to “really try and understand and process so I don’t, like, it doesn’t, like, lead me into a mental spiral.” She also said her vagina was “black and blue” from him punching her there. She said their “safe word” — daddy — “because I was in like so much pain when you were like hitting the top of like my literal, like, my vag.”
That’s when Hill said, “I never, like, thought that that’s, like, what it was gonna be, you know? Because we just, like, hadn’t, like, talked about that.”
She pressed Bauer when he said he understood and he replied, “Like, I understand, like, how like you feel, like, I understand how co- how you feel that way. Like it was obviously — that, that was not my intent. Like, I thought that.”
Hill again told Bauer that she appreciated him talking with her “because, like, this just helps me” then asked in a more pointed tone, “Why did you think that was OK, you know?”
“Was it just that you got carried away, like?” she asked.
Bauer replied, “It wasn’t, like, carried away at all.”
“In my head, I was following your lead. Like what we had talked about pain and slapping and hitting and these things and wanting to be choked and, like, letting go and being just, like, submitting and stuff like that,” Bauer said. He said he asked Hill “multiple times, like, ‘Are you OK? Do you wanna stop? Is that too much? Why don't you say the safe word?’ That was my way of like trying to follow your lead.”
Hill replied that she was “coming, like, in and out of consciousness.”
“I don’t remember you ever asking me and … the punching thing, like, I, like, didn’t want that and like that which is what I wanted to communicate. You know what I mean?” she continued.
Bauer told Hill, “I’m sorry that I don’t know, like, what to say. I feel really, like, feel your pain, and I’m, like in pain, too.”
“I never wanted to get to that point … I will never get to that point again, I promise. … I know that doesn’t change anything. Like, I’m hurting too, and this, like, I know you’re experiencing it much more than I am like, I feel so bad that I — something that I thought was, I was just trying to like, give you what we had talked about and make you feel good. That that was my perspective on it, you know?”
“Yeah. Yeah, no, for sure. And like, I appreciate,” Hill replied.
Bauer said again, “I’m hurting here, too,” and Hill said, “Yeah, I appreciate it.”
“Like, I can’t say it enough. I appreciate you, like, saying those things that’s why I wanted to like, talk about it. I’m just kind of like, yeah, that’s what I wanted to understand. Like, why did it get to that point?” Hill said.
Bauer told her “it wasn’t something where I just, like, blacked out and like was, you know, didn’t have, like, was just doing whatever.
“Like, I was like, that was my perspective on it. Like, I was trying to you know, like, I was trying to, like, protect you, but also, like, have the type of sex that we had talked about,” Bauer said.
Bauer said he knows “it’s a fine line.”
“Yeah, I don’t know the words. I just — I’m, struggling because I don’t want to hurt you. Like, I never want to hurt you,” Bauer said.
Hill told Bauer she “for sure wanted to communicate that I, like, never want to be, like, punched and hit super hard.”
“I just, like, never said that I wanted to be punched or like, you know, anything like that. So I just, like, want you know, you’ve been asking me a ton to communicate and, like, let you in, and I want to do that, so it’s, like, super hard for me to say these things,” Hill said.
She said she knows “for you, too, it’s hard, but I just had to, like, clearly communicate that to you.”
“You know, just because of, like, where it ended and, like, the hospital and having to, like, hide it, and, like, not be at work,” Hill said. “And so it does feel better to, to talk about it like I said because I do — I don’t want it to be something where we, like, don’t go, like, get to be still be friends or do whatever because of it you know?”
Bauer said he “thought that we had communicated.”
“Obviously, like, I know now that, like, there’s some miscommunication there … but I’ll — it’ll never happen again,” Bauer said. “I don’t want you to be, like, afraid to, like, be around me.”
That’s when Bauer tells her, “If there’s anything I can do to help you.”
“Like you mentioned, like, missing work, like, I just I want to want to make sure that you’re OK. Honestly, like if I can help, please, if there’s something I can do,” Bauer said.
Hill replied that she’s “just trying to understand and, like, not even being a bitch at all, but like it’s more of just like, you know, I’m, like, inexperienced with all this stuff.”
“Because remember, like, after the first time I was like, ‘Oh, is this, like, a normal response?’” Hill said. “Like, I know nothing, like, about, like, rough sex or anything like that. So, like, do, like, how could you think that, like, that is OK? You know, to, like, punch and like, like, hit that hard, like, you know, to where bruises are in, like — I’m just kind of trying to understand, like, do you think that’s OK, like? Or like, how could you think that’s OK? If you, you know, like, if that makes sense.”
Bauer replied, “Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.”
“I understand. I was under the impression that you had, like, had rough sex before because you had said that, that it’s, like, kind of your way of escaping,” Bauer said. “I should’ve clarified that and talked to you more about it and, like, really got on the same page with you about that. Like, it’s never — rough sex is never about my fantasy or my wishes. It's all about trying to — for me, it’s all about the other person, like, trying to give them what, like, I don’t know exactly how to phrase it.”
Hill said, “I get it. So you kind of,” then stopped herself. “Sorry, keep going,” she told Bauer.
Bauer said he “was under the impression that, like, you had done some sort of rough sex and stuff before.”
“I should have had more of a conversation with you about it. But again, like it was, it was not — it was not about trying to live out anything about me,” he said.
Hill told Bauer “that makes sense.”
“So you kind of just, like, assumed that it was OK?” Hill asked.
Bauer told her they “had talked about it.”
“When you, like, told me that you, like — that was kind of your escape and like, you want to be slapped and choked and stuff like this,” Bauer said. “Like, that’s why you told me that you wanted those things. … That’s what gave me that impression. You know?”
Hill said she was “just trying to remember, like, obviously, what I said.”
“So like, what — what did I even, like, what did I even tell you is, like, I don’t. What did I tell you was off limits again?”
Bauer said “fingers down the throat” and referenced their text messages.
Hill said she “definitely” remembers talking about choking.
“100% 1,000% For sure. That was me. Yeah. It’s just kind of, like, different than the punching and all of that stuff,” Hill said.
She again told Bauer she’s glad he talked to her.
“I’m super grateful,” Hill said. “Like, it actually, like, helps me so much to talk about it just because I’ve been in this headspace of, like, trying to, well, one, I’m just like, have concussion brain.”
“I’ve just been sleepy,” Hill continued. “And so I’m, like, I’m trying to put, like, my pieces together, obviously. And I’ve just been, like, alone and, like, obviously, like thinking about it. So it’s, like, helpful that you can tell me, like, like, you know, like, tell me, like where you are coming from, like, I appreciate that so much.”
She then returned to Bauer’s violence, referencing her concussion and asking him, “Like, how many, like, how many times you think you, like, hit my head?”
Bauer paused before stammering, “It wasn’t like ... I couldn’t … I’m not sure. It wasn’t that many.”
“That’s why I was so surprised, like, when you said, when you said, like, I didn’t think that anything would, like, I was so surprised, like … when I heard, you know?” Bauer said.
Hill chuckled and said she was “shocked at my, like, frickin vag.”
“It was literally, like, black and blue. So I was like, shit how many times did you, like, punch that?” Hill said. “But, like, I remember that part at the end, but because that’s like when I said safe word. Um, so yeah, I'm just processing it and like yeah, in like, did I seem like super out of it? Like, was I, like did it register to you how like out of it I was like, after passing out and stuff or was I fine?”
Bauer told her she “seemed fine.”
“When you would come to I would be like, ‘Hey, are you’ — we would talk, and it seemed like you were … like, you know, normal,” Bauer said.
“I said, ‘Are you OK? How are you doing?’ You know, I would check on you and make sure that everything that we were doing was still fine because I never wanted to cross any boundaries with you,” he continued. “So I kept checking to make sure that, like, what we were doing was like still OK.” He said when Hill said the “safe word” “you know my reaction there was like everything completely stopped as soon as you said that and I was like, ‘Hey, are you OK?’”
Bauer said he would have stopped “if at any time during that during the night you asked me to stop or anything like that.”
That’s when Hill told him she doesn’t remember “you ever asking me if I was OK.”
“I know I’m confused because obviously with, like, a concussion, like, your head’s pretty fucked up so I just don’t remember, yeah, I don’t remember you asking me if I was OK,” Hill said.
Hill said she remembers “after I was like crying and, like, full trauma.”
“I do remember you after, like, you know, like yeah, I know you stopped and stuff,” Hill continued.
Bauer asked her, “How do we move forward from here?”
“Is there anything I can do to help or, like, what? I’m trying to be here for you and get through this together. I don’t — I don’t want you to feel like you’re, like, have to go through this alone,” Bauer said. “But I also don’t want to feel, like — I don’t want you to, like, not want to talk to me and have me continuously be, like, trying to talk to you. … So can you give me some direction on, like, what what can I do to help you? And, like, what’s the best way to go?”
Hill told him she wanted to “get the facts so I can, like, understand.” She referenced “the way the injuries went” and said Bauer appeared “a little out of control.”
“It did scare me. Like, I was really scared. Like, obviously based off my reaction, like, you saw me after and like, like, I was scared in the hospital,” Hill said. “I’m just like trying to figure that out.”
She said the best thing Bauer can do to support her is “this exact, like, phone call and just kind of, like, tell me, like, those things and for me to, like, express like how I felt about it.”
“So, like, I do feel a lot better. … Just in the future, it’s like now you know that that, like, wasn’t OK with me,” Hill said. She said she tries to “mask my shit with humor.”
“This conversation really was, like, all I needed to, like, feel better personally, you know what I mean?” Hill continued. “So, like, thank you again for just saying all that and I know I asked you, like, a lot and you’re probably exhausted and you have a game today, but know that’s like the best thing you could do for me was just, like, be honest and tell me about those things.”
She asked Bauer how he was feeling and he replied, “Like, I’m worried.”
Hill asked, “About what?” and laughed.
Bauer told her, “You.”
“I’m upset I’m not in town right now so I can’t, like, come see you, if that’s something that you wanted, or try to help at all,” Bauer said. He said his impression of what happened “is much different than where you’re at so I’m just, so, I’m worried about you.”
“I just want to make sure you’re OK,” Bauer continued. “That’s the biggest thing, you know?”
Hill told him, “That does make me feel better.”
“I, like, want you to, like, know how I’m doing and, like, again, like, concussion plays like a big role in this of how like, like shitty I feel and so, like, once I start feeling better, like, it’ll be better. Like, these things get better,” Hill said. “I’m OK. … Like I just promised myself I would be like, OK, I need him to understand like, you so you know how hard you hit me based off the concussion then, and like, you know how hard it was?”
Bauer said what happened “just surprised me so much.”
“Thank you for sharing that. I know it doesn’t help, but, like, it’s not something that will ever like happen again,” Hill said.
Bauer said “it’s not something that will ever happen again.”
“Like, I don’t want you to worry about that. I know that, like, it’s not as easy as that. You know, like I know the words don’t change your emotions, and which is why I’m struggling so much,” Bauer said. “And it’s just, it’s, yeah, I just, like, I'm shocked that we ended up at this place. I just want to make sure you’re OK. That’s all.”
Hill told him “that helps” and said her “natural coping mechanism is to just, like, not talk about shit.”
“Like, that’s how I lived my life for so long. So, like, I appreciate you letting me just like, express, like, what I you know, like, did and didn’t want and so yeah, I feel honestly like a lot better even if I don’t sound like it right now,” Hill continued. “But like, like, it’ll be a lot easier for me to like, talk to you now, um, and all that stuff.”
Hill said, “Thanks, TB” and said a GIF he posted on social media of Yoda from Star Wars “was cute.”
Bauer told her he was “thinking about you.” Hill told him he had “a killer game” against the San Francisco Giants the night before.
“What was it? 11 Ks?” Hill asked.
“Yeah, it was, it was an OK night. But obviously not as important as what’s going on with us,” Bauer replied.
He asked if Hill wants “me to continue to, like, check on you or do you want me to leave you alone?”
“So I would love for you to check in. If I don’t reply, it’s honestly because I’m sleeping or, like, trying to figure my life out. But mostly, I’m just sleeping all the time. So um no, yeah, I want to talk to you. And I’m grateful for you,” Hill said. “And, like, I can’t tell you how much it means that you just, like, were able to, like, talk to me, because I know not everyone would. So you gave me like the best gift that you could give me.”
Bauer told her to “reach out” if he “can help in any way” and Hill said she would.”
“I’m trying to be here for you, you know,” Bauer said.
Hill told him “it means a lot.”
“And, like, thank you for acknowledging, like, what you did and you made me feel a lot better,” she said.
“I hope you have a better day and I'll talk to you soon, OK?” Bauer replied.
Hill told him to “have a good game tonight.”
“OK, I'll do,” Bauer said.
“OK. Bye, Trev,” Hill said.
“Bye,” Bauer said.
Bauer files three lawsuits after MLB suspension
At the time of the call, Hill’s and Bauer’s relationship was still private. It wouldn’t become public until six weeks later, when Hill filed a petition in Los Angles County Superior Court on June 27, 2021, seeking a restraining order against Bauer that detailed his alleged assaults and said he’d been contacting her frequently since.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Dianna Gould-Saltmann rejected Hill’s request for a longterm restraining order against Bauer, saying in her August 2021 ruling that Hill’s “initial declaration, which was the basis upon which she obtained a temporary restraining order, was materially misleading” because it overstated the extent to which Bauer contacted Hill following their second and last encounter on May 15, 2021.
Gould-Saltmann also said Hill “set limits” with Bauer “without fully considering all the consequences” and Bauer “did not exceed the limits.” But the judge never officially determined Bauer didn’t assault Hill, which another judge pointed out the next year when declining to dismiss Hill’s federal counterclaims against Bauer.
Major League Baseball took swift action, placing Bauer on administrative leave in July, then suspending him for two seasons in April 2022. An arbitrator in December 2022 reduced the suspension to one season, but MLB officials emphasized in a press release that the decision to keep the one-season suspension “upholds baseball’s longest-ever active player suspension for sexual assault or domestic violence.”
By then, Bauer was pursuing three federal lawsuits: One against Hill and her lawyer at the time, Niranjan “Fred” Thiagarajah; one against The Athletic and journalist Molly Knight for defamation over their coverage of Hill’s accusations; and one against G/O Media, Inc., which owns the website Deadspin, and former Deadspin Managing Editor Chris Baud for their coverage.
Senior U.S. District Judge James V. Selna, a 2003 George W. Bush appointee, threw out the claims against Thiagarajan in November 2022, saying the statements Bauer said were defamatory were instead factual, or, in one instance, a clearly stated opinion.
Bauer’s lawyers pointed to the video they obtained from Pasadena police of Hill in bed next to Bauer and said Thiagarajan had to have known it existed when he told the Washington Post, “There’s no doubt Mr. Bauer just brutalized” Hill.
Judge Selna, however, equated Thiagarajan’s use of the word “brutalized” with Judge Gould-Saltmann’s description of Hill’s injuries as “terrible” in the state court restraining order hearing. The statement that Selna concluded as an opinion was: “It’s easy to deny these things occurred when you’re not going to have a chance to be cross-examined about it.”
“While it is certainly Bauer’s right to exercise his Fifth Amendment privilege, it is similarly Thiagarajah’s right to exercise his privileges under the First Amendment,” the judge wrote.
(Hill’s lawyers asked Bauer about her injuries in his recent deposition. Here’s how they summarized his answers: “He was originally confused when he received the photograph from Ms. Hill showing her face with bruising and cuts because he wasn't sure if she was claiming the injuries resulting from what they did and he didn’t know if she couldn’t remember how she had gotten injured.”)
Judge Selna’s order meant Thiagarajah was entitled to collect money from Bauer to pay for his attorney fees and other legal costs. They ended up reaching an agreement outside court that has not been detailed publicly.
Four months later, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty in New York dismissed Bauer’s defamation lawsuit over Deadspin’s coverage, saying the statement that Bauer fractured Hill’s skull was “substantially true and therefore nonactionable as defamation.” Crotty referenced Hill’s medical records that shows a doctor “diagnosed her with ‘significant head and facial trauma’ and symptoms of a basilar skull fracture, including ‘raccoon eyes’ and a ‘Battle’s sign,’ which are observable indicators of a potential fracture.”
“Those symptoms were not merely ‘self-reported,’ but based on a physician’s initial examination and observation of L.H.,” according to Judge Crotty’s March 1, 2023, order. “This means that the true bridge between the contested Statements — Plaintiff fractured L.H.’s skull as diagnosed by an initial CT scan — and reality — Plaintiff caused L.H. facial trauma that a doctor initially diagnosed as symptoms of a skull fracture — is small enough to render the ‘gist’ or ‘sting’ of the statements unchanged.”
The Deadspin article at issue quoted and linked to an article by Molly Knight at The Athletic, which Bauer had also sued over. He agreed to dismiss his claims in June after The Athletic updated the two-year-old article to say that medical records concluded Hill did not suffer a skull fracture and that the publication “did not intend to state or imply that the woman suffered a fractured skull.”
Knight had previously deleted tweets about the injuries, including one that said, “Not possible to consent to a fractured skull.”
“Mr. Bauer has agreed that The Athletic’s clarification and the withdrawal of Ms. Knight’s tweets makes any further legal action unnecessary, and he has withdrawn his libel action against The Athletic and Ms. Knight,” according to a June 27 filing in the Los Angeles-based Central District of California.
Bauer didn’t legally blame Hill for MLB troubles
Bauer’s lawsuit against Hill, meanwhile, appeared destined for a jury trial.
Though it involved claims that Hill interfered in Bauer’s multi-million MLB contract and other business opportunities, Bauer’s lawyer Blair G. Brown told Judge Spaeth that he was seeking only “nominal damages” and “does not contend that Ms. Hill’s allegations caused him to go on administrative leave, be suspended, or be disciplined by Major League Baseball.”
“It’s really about showing that these [sexual assault] allegations were untrue,” said Brown, according to a court reporter’s transcript of the June 28 hearing.
The hearing concerned a crucial evidentiary issue involving Hill’s requests for information from Bauer through the discovery process and for information and depositions from other women she said have accused him of sexual assault.
Bauer’s lawyers wanted Judge Spaeth to quash the subpoenas, and they submitted statements from two women involving their privacy interests, one of whom he said has never “publicly accused Mr. Bauer of sexual assault or any nonconsensual sexual contact and that any deposition or document production from her would, quote, ‘only serve to harass, embarrass, and humiliate’ her.”
Brown said the right to privacy extends to “someone who might allege that there was a sexual assault in violation of the criminal law.”
But Hill’s lawyer said there are “striking similarities” between Hill’s allegations and “at least some” of the women’s encounters with Bauer.
“I’m going to say something that I believe is in the public record but all deals with situations where Mr. Bauer caused these victims, or at least some of them — not all, but some of them — to become unconscious often by strangulation and engaging in sexual assault while they were unconscious,” said Jesse A. Kaplan of Freedman & Taitelman, according to the transcript.
Kaplan referenced the woman who testified in the MLB arbitration and said she “presented two videos evidencing Mr. Bauer’s sexual assault upon her,” which she said occurred in 2013 and 2014. She also spoke to the The Washington Post and Yahoo! Sports, including about trying to get a restraining order against Bauer. (Bauer acknowledged the attempted restraining order in his deposition with Hill’s lawyers, according to their summary. “He has a small amount of experience with choking people unconscious. How long it takes varies person to person. His best estimate is he can't say because he hasn't timed it. His best estimate is based on personal experience. He has a limited amount of personal experience.”)
Here’s a screenshot from the transcript of Kaplan’s June 28 remarks:
Another woman is accusing Bauer of sexual assault and rape in a public lawsuit in Arizona, and “the facts are very strikingly similar to what occurred to Ms. Hill,” Kaplan said. Another contacted Hill’s prior lawyer “voluntarily and disclosed both her identity and her accusations of sexual assault by Mr. Bauer,” Kaplan said, while another “has put forward evidence…that shows Mr. Bauer’s intent and plan to commit sexual assault.”
“We’re not asking about any sexual encounters, really, that she had with Mr. Bauer,” Kaplan said. “We’ve laid an adequate foundation that at least four of the five women have been sexually assaulted, and we provide details about that.”
In response, Brown, a partner with Zuckerman Spaeder LLP in Washington, D.C., said that “simply calling something a ‘sexual assault’ does not mean it’s a sexual assault.”
“The sexual conduct that we are talking about here — much of it, even in the particular allegations here — involve consensual, rough sex,” Brown said.
“Now, I realize that there are contentions from Ms. Hill, and perhaps from others, that some of that strayed into areas that were nonconsensual,” Brown continued. “And we’ll see, in the case of Ms. Hill, where that leads, although, a judge in the domestic violence restraining order proceeding found that everything — everything — that occurred between her and Mr. Bauer was consensual and that Ms. Hill was materially misleading.”
Brown added that it’s “understandable” why the women may have privacy concerns “whether it’s rough sex or vanilla sex.”
Here’s a screenshot from the transcript of Brown’s remarks:
Judge Spaeth granted Bauer’s motion to quash only for the woman who allegedly has information about him planning sexual assaults but denied it for the other women, which meant they had to comply with the subpoenas. She then ruled that Bauer’s information on the MLB investigation was fair game for Hill’s case, as were “statements, interviews or testimony Bauer has provided to any law enforcement authorities or Major League Baseball.” She didn’t allow Hill to seek documents from Major League Baseball itself, instead calling the request “largely over broad.”
The issue arose again on Aug. 28 when Hill’s lawyers said two of the women had failed to show for depositions on Aug. 17 and Aug. 25 and thus they were unable to access the information Judge Spaeth had authorized. They noted that Spaeth said she may change her mind and allow Hill to get documents from MLB if the depositions didn’t go through, so they were requesting she do so to allow Hill “to obtain the highly critical MLB arbitration documents.” They filed a motion on Sept. 11 that was not resolved before Monday’s dismissal.
Around the same time, Bauer’s lawyers asked Judge Selna to dismiss Hill’s counterclaims against Bauer as a sanction for what they described as “her flagrant and escalating witness tampering” with four people. They said Hill instructed a potential witness to withhold documents from Bauer’s attorneys, posted threatening comments on the Instagram page of the girlfriend of a man who told Pasadena police not to believe her and also threatened two others. They also said Hill “may have influenced or threatened” at least four other witnesses who denied having information responsive to their subpoenas, including one who told them, “I have nothing at all for your rapist client,” according to the June 14 sanctions motion.
But Judge Selna disagreed that Hill tried to influence the witnesses, including one that he said had previously given testimony to the Pasadena police that “was helpful to Hill and hurtful to Bauer.”
The details of what the witness said are redacted from Selna’s Aug. 4 order, but the judge said it “would tend to confirm Hill’s account of events, and thus Hill had no reason to convince Doe to not testify or change her testimony.”
Selna also said Hill’s Instagram comment didn’t amount to witness tampering, but he said her communications with the other two witnesses “are more troubling” and that one of her messages “cannot be read as anything other than an explicit instruction to withhold responsive documents.” Her messages with another witness “certainly cross lines of civility” and were “ill-advised and highly inappropriate” but “do not rise to the level of witness tampering.”
Still, “Even absent a finding that Hill intentionally engaged in witness tampering, the Court finds that Hill’s communications, if permitted to continue unchecked, could interfere with the full and fair determination of this case.”
The sanction imposed by Selna paled in comparison to the sanctions requested by Bauer’s lawyers. They wanted the judge to dismiss Hill’s counterclaims, hold an evidentiary hearing or issue monetary sanctions, but Selna instead merely warned Hill not to contact witnesses again. He said Bauer “has suffered little, if any prejudice due to Hill’s communications” because “there is no objective indication that any of Hill’s communications actually resulted in evidence or testimony being withheld.”
Bauer’s lawyers, meanwhile, were seeking a court order to force Hill to undergo a mental competency examination. An email from Brown filed on Sept. 11 said Hill “has placed her mental condition at issue” by listing “an extensive set of physical and mental conditions” that she said “became prominent after the batteries/sexual batteries and increased over time [and] continue through the present.”
Hill also said “her recent relapse into alcohol abuse was caused by Mr. Bauer’s actions, despite prior assurances to Mr. Bauer’s counsel and a representation to the court that Ms. Hill was making no such claim.”
Hill referenced her mental health this week when discussing why she chose to settle with Bauer.
“I really had to take into consideration my mental health. The litigation is never ending,” she told Sara Gonzales of Blaze TV.
“I think the bigger question is why did Trevor settle and why didn’t he want to take this all the way? And it’s because of the chance of cross-examination and all the evidence.”
Read Bauer’s full complaint against Hill here.
Read Hill’s counterclaims against Bauer here.
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