Trevor Bauer's accuser becomes flustered by aggressive cross-examination

As the lunch break approached on the second day of the hearing to determine whether a restraining order should be issued against Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer, the demeanor of the woman who has accused him of sexual assault changed noticeably under cross-examination from Bauer’s attorney Shawn Holley.

Mostly poised and self-assured during her nearly six hours of direct testimony Monday and Tuesday morning, the 27-year-old San Diego woman appeared flustered by Holley’s aggressive questioning.

Holley began by demanding the accuser define a lie of omission, then proceeded to point out Instagram and text message threads the accuser failed to include in her request for a temporary restraining order June 28.

Holley asked why the accuser “omitted dozens of key facts in your request for a restraining order,” and the woman had a lengthy pause before stammering, “I don’t know.”

The woman’s attorneys objected to several dozen of Holley’s questions, but most were overruled by Judge Dianna Gould-Saltman.

The judge allowed questions about the accuser’s sexual relationships with San Diego Padres players Fernando Tatis Jr. and Mike Clevinger. Both players were mentioned in text messages sent by the accuser to a cousin.

After acknowledging that she had a sexual relationship with Tatis, the accuser also said she was fired from the Pad Squad, a group of young women who participate in community events on behalf of the Padres, because of that relationship.

About the time of her first sexual encounter with Bauer, the woman said in a message to her cousin: “Trevor is a wackadoodle like Clev.” That message, and the one mentioning Tatis, were not included in the woman’s request for a restraining order.

Holley asked the identity of Clev and the accuser began to cry, saying “I’m not bringing him into it.”

Holley: “Is it Mike Clevinger of the San Diego Padres?”

Accuser: “He doesn’t need to be brought into it.”

Gould-Saltman requested an answer and the accuser muttered, “Yes.”

The woman, who testified Monday that she was an alcoholic from age 15 to 25 before achieving sobriety in January 2020, said the relationship with Tatis occurred in 2019 when she was still drinking and the relationship with Clevinger occurred in October 2020, after she became sober.

Further questions from Holley pertained to messages exchanged between Bauer and the accuser in the days leading up to their first encounter April 21, also messages not included in the restraining order request.

The woman said she knew before she met Bauer of his three rules of dating: No feelings. No social media. We can date other people.

In one of her first messages to Bauer, the accuser wrote that her feelings button was switched off. She also messaged Bauer that “I’ll have my NDA [non-disclosure agreement] signed and sealed.” Holley asked why the woman left those messages out of her declaration.

When the woman answered that she no longer had access to the messages, Gould-Saltman interrupted: “You don’t remember saying anything about a feelings button at all?” The woman answered no. How about an NDA? “No.”

Earlier, the accuser completed direct testimony that began Monday and took six hours, focusing mainly on the events after she left Bauer’s house on their second encounter May 16.

She testified in a wavering voice that she was in a state of shock and disorientation, and that she drove home after throwing up in her car and later visited her best friend’s house, trying to piece together what had happened.

She initially didn’t plan to talk publicly about the encounter, she said. But after looking at herself in a mirror for the first time — finding a black bruise that stretched from the top to the bottom of her vagina, smaller marks on her buttocks and blackened gums — she drove to Alvarado Medical Center in San Diego.

Bauer hadn’t contacted her that entire first day, she testified. The accuser’s lawyers played a voicemail the pitcher had left for her after she’d texted him from the hospital May 17.

“Hey, you, I just wanted to check in and see how you’re doing,” Bauer’s voice rang, electronically, through the courtroom. “I’m worried about you, so give me a text or a call back when you have a chance.”

On the stand, the accuser began crying.

To a rapid-fire line of questioning from her attorney — did she go to the hospital to seek publicity? Was she trying to set Bauer up in any way? Was she trying to destroy his career? — the woman repeatedly replied “no,” explaining she didn’t plan on speaking to the police until a social worker told her it was hospital policy.

In the meantime, she tried to “de-escalate” conversation with Bauer, she said, terrified he’d find out she’d talked to the police. After texts from the pitcher offering to buy her groceries or desserts, she felt Bauer was saying those things to get her to “shut up.”

After asking why she waited to get a restraining order — to which the woman essentially replied that she wasn’t sure if Bauer would be arrested and wanted to seek protection for herself — her lawyer asked what had changed in her life.

“I lost my job, I lost my place of residence, I had to take a leave from my other job,” the accuser replied. “It’s still hard to fall asleep. ... I’ve lost over 10 pounds. And just the sadness I had to live every day, and the fear I have of Trevor Bauer, it’s brutal.”

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.