Trevor Bauer strikes out again in federal court as defamation claims dwindle

The list of grievances for baseball pitcher Trevor Bauer once included six people and publications named in three different lawsuits totaling 92 pages in three different courts, all filed since March 2022.

But now it’s down to two people and one publication after a federal judge in New York this week dismissed his lawsuit against the sports website Deadspin and editor Chris Baud.

The decision marks another legal defeat for the former Los Angeles Dodgers star, who had hoped to use these defamation complaints to clear his name as he tries to resume his pro baseball career.

Bauer, 32, has not played since June 2021, when a woman in San Diego accused him of assaulting her without her consent during two encounters at his home in Pasadena. He said it was consensual rough sex and was never charged with a crime but still was suspended by Major League Baseball after an investigation into his conduct with this and other women.

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Here is a look at where things stand for him in the halls of justice:

The Deadspin case

Bauer’s claims all stem from the San Diego woman’s allegations and how they were reported and discussed. Deadspin published an article July 6, 2021, which said the woman had "her skull fractured" in an incident with Bauer.

Other news media outlets reported about "signs" of such an injury because that is what the woman stated in her request for a temporary restraining order against Bauer. Her request filed in court in late June 2021 stated she was diagnosed at a hospital with an "acute head injury" and said there were "signs of a basilar skull fracture."

In Deadspin's case, Bauer considered its description of a fractured skull to be false and defamatory. His representatives noted she had no skull fracture, as evidenced by a medical report attached to the woman's same request in court. A CT scan showed "no acute fracture," according to the report.

But U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty didn’t buy Bauer’s argument and found Deadspin’s statements to be substantially true and therefore not defamatory. He described Deadspin’s reporting as containing a “few technical inaccuracies” and not enough to sustain Bauer’s lawsuit.

“Whether those injuries included a skull fracture or simply 'significant head and facial trauma’ and bruising does not change the nature of the accusations, nor would it produce a different effect on the mind of the reader,” Crotty wrote.

The lawyer case

Bauer also sued the San Diego woman and her former lawyer, Fred Thiagarajah. His claim against Thiagarajah also was dismissed by a federal judge after Bauer accused him of defaming him with comments he made to the Washington Post last year. Thiagarajah told the Post there was “no doubt that Mr. Bauer just brutalized” his client in his encounters with her in 2021. Bauer’s attorneys say this was false and defamatory.

But the judge in that case, James Selna, cited the attorney’s First Amendment right to free speech and found that his comments were “substantially true.” He dismissed Bauer’s case against Thiagarajah in November, leading Thiagarajah to attempt to get Bauer to pay him $55,355 in attorneys’ fees and costs.

The two sides later reached a confidential settlement. Bauer’s case against the San Diego woman remains pending, but she has countersued him and has survived his attempt to have her case dismissed. Bauer even asked the judge to reconsider the latter decision but was denied that request in late January.

The Athletic case

Bauer’s case against the sports website The Athletic and its former writer Molly Knight remains active.

Much like the Deadspin case, Bauer’s lawsuit against The Athletic said the publication and Knight defamed him by “creating and spreading the false narrative that Mr. Bauer fractured the (woman’s) skull.” Knight wrote about the encounter in three short posts on Twitter, where she described a “cracked” or “fractured” skull.

“There seems to be some confusion surrounding the issue of consent but here is some clarity: it’s not possible to consent to a cracked skull,” said one of the tweets from July 2, 2021, which since has been deleted.

In December, U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald granted the publication’s motion to strike Bauer’s complaint but allowed Bauer to take another shot at it with an amended lawsuit, while also noting “the court has some doubts” about it. The judge allowed the case against Knight to proceed despite her attorneys’ argument that the tweets were opinions protected by the U.S. Constitution. Fitzgerald ruled against her, saying a “reasonable factfinder could conclude that the tweets were impliedly asserting an objective fact because of the context, language, and provable nature of the tweets.”

The Athletic is appealing that decision and attempting to dismiss Bauer’s amended lawsuit.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. E-mail: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trevor Bauer suffers more losses in court as he tries to clear name