Lindsey Hill, right, and Trevor Bauer, left. (Images via court documents and YouTube screengrab.)
Trevor Bauer, the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher who remains on administrative leave pending an investigating into the sexual assault allegations against him, has sued the woman who accused him of physically hurting her during a sexual encounter that had started out as consensual.
Bauer has named the woman, Lindsey Hill, and her lawyer, Niranjan Fred Thiagarajah, in a 40-page defamation lawsuit filed Monday.
“Defendant Lindsey Hill fabricated allegations of sexual assault against Plaintiff Trevor Bauer, pursued bogus criminal and civil actions against him, made false and malicious statements about him, and generated a media blitz based on her lies,” the complaint begins.
Bauer goes on to detail what he describes as an extensive plot by Hill “destroy Mr. Bauer’s reputation and baseball career” and “extract millions of dollars” from the baseball pro. He says Thiagarajah helped Hill in these efforts.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Hill filed a request for a Domestic Violence Restraining Order with police in Pasadena, California, in June of 2021. In her request, she said that over the course of two sexual encounters with Bauer, the pitcher physically and sexually assaulted her over the course of two sexual encounters. Both had started out as consensual, but Hill said that as they went on, Bauer became increasingly aggressive, ultimately engaging in nonconsensual sex and violence while Hill was unconscious.
At the time of the original report, Law&Crime declined to name Bauer’s accuser because she alleged that she was the victim of a sexual attack.
In August, a Los Angeles judge dissolved Hill’s temporary restraining order against Bauer and denied her request to make it permanent. That judge, Dianne Gould-Saltman, found that Bauer had not abused or assaulted Hill, and that Hill’s original restraining order request had been “materially misleading.”
According to Bauer, Hill was lying.
“At no point did Mr. Bauer punch Ms. Hill in the face,” the complaint says. “At no point did Mr. Bauer punch Ms. Hill in the vagina. At no point did Mr. Bauer punch Ms. Hill in the stomach. And at no point did Mr. Bauer scratch Ms. Hill’s face.”
Bauer accuses Hill of lying to local police.
“The statements made by Ms. Hill to the Pasadena Police Department that Mr. Bauer sexually assaulted her were false, defamatory, and published with actual malice,” the complaint says. “Ms. Hill knew that her statements to the Pasadena Police Department were false … Because Ms. Hill’s false statements accused Mr. Bauer of a serious crime and maligned him in his profession, those statements constitute defamation per se and Mr. Bauer’s injury is presumed. The false statements by Ms. Hill have severely damaged Mr. Bauer’s reputation and caused him anguish, humiliation, embarrassment, and financial loss.”
Bauer says that Hill, who lived in San Diego, bragged to friends that she could potentially use her relationship with Bauer to somehow benefit the San Diego Padres.
“She told a friend that she was ‘literally going to get in his head . . . And find pine tar,’ assuring him, ‘[t]rust me I know what [I’]m doing . . . I can get in his head.’ She similarly sent a message to her cousin, telling him ‘Tatis hitting that homerun off Bauer (laughing face emoji) . . . Knew I was gonna get in his head . . . Like do I have superpowers or something,'” the complaint says. “Ms. Hill continued to send her cousin screenshots of her conversation with Mr. Bauer, often mocking him. When Mr. Bauer sent Ms. Hill a message at 1:19 a.m. on May 8th, she sent a screenshot of that message to her cousin with a text stating: ‘The hooks are in so deep.'”
Bauer says that Thiagarajah’s statements to The Washington Post, in which he stated that there was “no doubt that Mr. Bauer just brutalized” Hill, were false and defamatory.
Bauer also accuses Hill of tortious interference of contract.
“By making a false report to the Pasadena Police Department and conducing a malicious campaign to defame Mr. Bauer and destroy his reputation and career, Ms. Hill intentionally engaged in wrongful acts that were designed, intended, and substantially certain to disrupt or terminate the contractual relationship between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Mr. Bauer,” the complaint says. “Due to Ms. Hill’s wrongful acts, the contractual relationship between Mr. Bauer and the Los Angeles Dodgers was disrupted. Mr. Bauer was placed on administrative leave from the Los Angeles Dodgers and prevented from carrying out the duties of his contract. Mr. Bauer was not permitted to practice or play with the Los Angeles Dodgers team for the duration of the 2021 MLB season and has remained on administrative leave since the beginning of the 2022 MLB season.”
A spokesperson for Bauer confirmed that he is still on the Dodgers roster. His current administrative leave is supposed to end Friday. Representatives for Major League Baseball did not immediately reply to Law&Crime’s request for information on the status of the investigation into Bauer or whether the administrative leave would be extended.
Thiagarajah did not immediately respond to Law&Crime’s request for comment.
You can read Bauer’s lawsuit, below.
[Images via court documents and YouTube screengrab.]