LOS ANGELES -- A Los Angeles judge sided with Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer on Thursday and denied a five-year restraining order requested by a woman who said he choked her into unconsciousness and punched her repeatedly during two sexual encounters.
In denying the civil domestic violence restraining order after a four-day hearing, Judge Dianna Gould-Saltman said according to the 27-year-old San Diego woman's testimony, Bauer honored her boundaries when she set them. And she said Bauer couldn't know the boundaries she didn't express to him.
"We consider in a sexual encounter that when a woman says no she should be believed," Gould-Saltman said, "so what should we do when she says yes?"
The woman's attorney, Lisa Helfend Meyer, said in her closing arguments that Bauer was a "monster" who far exceeded what the woman consented to, especially in punching her in the face and leaving serious bruising that was captured in photographs. Bauer also did things that the woman couldn't consent to because she had been choked unconscious.
"Let me be clear, the injuries as shown in the photographs are terrible," said the judge, who issued her decision about five minutes after closing arguments were completed. However, she added, in her communications with Bauer the woman "was not ambiguous about wanting rough sex in the parties' first encounter, and wanting rougher sex in the second encounter."
Bauer had no visible reaction in court to the decision.
It was a victory for Bauer in his public fight to clear his name, but serious hurdles remain, including a criminal investigation by police in Pasadena, Calif., and a probe by Major League Baseball.
MLB put Bauer on paid administrative leave on July 2, and has extended the status through today.
