Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer filed a defamation lawsuit against sports media website the Athletic and a former reporter, alleging they intentionally omitted information about a sexual assault claim against him.
Bauer, 31, argues in the lawsuit that the Athletic and its former writer Molly Knight had acted with actual malice in efforts to try to smear his name after they “deliberately ignored the truth,” according to the lawsuit. The outlet and Knight created and spread “the false narrative” that Bauer had fractured the skull of his sexual assault accuser, which the CT scans did not show, Bauer claims.
“Today I filed a defamation lawsuit,” Bauer said in a tweet announcing the court document, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Bauer stated that the outlet and Knight had “knowingly” published “false information.”
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“In May and June 2021, Plaintiff Trevor Bauer was falsely accused of sexual assault by a woman,” the lawsuit says. Bauer and the woman had had a “consensual sexual relationship” starting in April 2021, Jon Fetterolf, Bauer’s lawyer said in a statement at the time.
The claims brought forth by Bauer’s accuser were investigated by LA Superior Court judge Dianna Gould-Saltman and the LA District Attorney’s Office. Bauer was benched by Major League Baseball in light of his accuser’s claims, and the league also investigated the allegations.
The District Attorney’s Office said in February that Bauer would not be facing criminal charges because they had been unable to prove the charges brought against Bauer. Despite this, “Mr. Bauer had already been convicted by the media through false and malicious reporting,” the lawsuit says.
Today I filed a defamation lawsuit against The Athletic and its former MLB reporter Molly Knight in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles for knowingly publishing false information. You can read the complaint here: https://t.co/2GXRxxQpEG
— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) March 29, 2022
Days after Bauer’s accuser filed a petition for a restraining order she had been seeking against him, the Athletic and Knight began to “defame” Bauer by claiming he had fractured the woman’s skull, according to the lawsuit.
“There was no basis for that assertion because the Complainant’s own medical records — which The Athletic possessed — showed that she had no such fracture,” the lawsuit says. “Nonetheless, consistent with their prior and subsequent expressions of animus toward Mr. Bauer, The Athletic and Ms. Knight publicized that false attack, which was picked up and further disseminated to a larger audience by other media outlets and social media sites.”
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Bauer’s lawsuit also says Knight tweeted false accusations against him claiming that he had fractured the woman’s skull, according to the lawsuit. Knight is additionally accused of tweeting several “false and defamatory” tweets, according to the lawsuit.
As part of the lawsuit, Bauer is seeking compensatory, special and punitive damages, monetary costs and expenses, such as attorney’s fees, and other relief deemed appropriate by the court, according to the lawsuit.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Bauer and the Athletic for a statement but did not receive a response back.
