Ex-Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer resolves litigation with woman who accused him of assault
Former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer has reached a settlement with the San Diego woman who accused him of sexual battery in 2021, resolving all litigation between them, including his defamation lawsuit against her filed in April 2022.
Bauer’s representatives said in a statement that Bauer has never made any payments to the woman, Lindsey Hill, including to resolve their litigation. Likewise, an attorney for the woman said she did not pay “a single dollar” to Bauer but received $300,000 from her insurance company.
“Based on that payment, Lindsey agreed to settle the lawsuit,” read a statement from her attorney, Bryan Freedman.
Hill also had filed a federal countersuit against Bauer last year in which she re-stated her battery claims and sought damages from Bauer according to proof at trial. The settlement resolves those counterclaims, too.
“Trevor Bauer and Lindsey Hill have settled all outstanding litigation," read a statement from Bauer's attorneys. "Both of their respective claims have been withdrawn with prejudice, effective today. Mr. Bauer did not make – and never has made – any payments to Ms. Hill, including to resolve their litigation. With this matter now at rest, Mr. Bauer can focus completely on baseball.”
What led to this settlement with Trevor Bauer?
Bauer’s baseball career in the U.S. effectively came to a halt after Hill came forward with detailed allegations of her sexual encounters with him in her request for a temporary restraining order against him in late June 2021. She claimed he went too far with rough sex without her consent, leading her to the hospital where she was diagnosed with an acute head injury and assault by strangulation.
Bauer never was arrested or charged with a crime. He said the encounters were entirely consensual and also denied similar allegations made against him by other women.
After Hill made her allegations public, Bauer was placed on administrative leave before being suspended by Major League Baseball for 324 games. Bauer appealed the suspension, leading to a hearing before a private arbitrator who reduced it to 194 games, still the largest suspension under the league’s domestic violence policy.
Bauer then took his career to Japan after being released by the Dodgers.
In a YouTube video he published Monday, Bauer said the woman concealed evidence from him that he sued her to discover. He used her digital messages to portray her claims as a money grab.
“Next victim. Star pitcher for the dodgers,” read one text she sent to a friend before she met Bauer, according to the video.
“What should I steal?” she asked in another text, in reference to visiting Bauer’s house in Pasadena for the first time, according to the video.
“Since then, her legal team has approached me multiple times about coming to a financial settlement,” Bauer said in the video, noting he retained his right to speak publicly about the case. “But as I have done since day one, I refused to pay her even a single cent.”
What did the woman's attorney say?
Freedman, Hill's attorney, issued a statement Monday.
“In what turned out to be an outstanding resolution for Lindsey, neither Lindsey nor anyone on her behalf paid anything to Bauer," the statement read. "Not a single dollar. Even better, Lindsey received $300,000 dollars 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.”
After hearing evidence in the case in August 2021, a judge in Los Angeles said she found Hill’s original application for a temporary restraining order in June 2021 to be "materially misleading” and denied the woman’s request for a five-year restraining order.
Bauer also sued journalists and publications over how they reported on Hill's allegations but since has ended those lawsuits, including one against the website Deadspin that was thrown out by a judge earlier this year. A woman in Arizona still has an active lawsuit against him in which she accused him of sexual assault in late 2020. He has denied those allegations, too, and has countersued her, accusing her of fraud.
Bauer, 32, said he sued Hill to help clear his name.
“Quite frankly, regardless of the outcome in court, I’ve paid significantly more in legal fees than (the woman) could ever pay me in her entire life, and I knew that would be the case going in,” Bauer said in the video. “But the lawsuit was never about the money for me. It was the only way for me to obtain critical information to clear my name.”
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Former MLB pitcher Trevor Bauer settles cases with San Diego woman
