Former Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer and accuser settle civil lawsuits against each other
Former Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer and the San Diego woman who accused him of sexual assault have settled their civil lawsuits, with neither side paying any money to the other.
After Major League Baseball handed Bauer its harshest suspension for violating its policy against sexual assault and domestic violence — after an investigation triggered by her 2021 allegations — Bauer sued her for defamation. The woman, Lindsey Hill, countersued for assault and sexual battery.
The Times generally does not identify sexual assault victims and accusers. Hill’s attorneys identified her in public statements Monday.
Under terms of the settlement, both parties withdrew their lawsuits. According to an email from Hill’s attorneys and provided by Bauer’s attorneys, Hill will receive a $300,000 payment from her insurer, with proceeds sent to her law firm.
The accuser in a civil suit against former Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer wants him turn over two other women’s statements to MLB investigators.
The trial had been scheduled for February. Hill’s attorneys had been unable to access MLB investigatory documents, however, and another woman who made similar allegations against Bauer to MLB had declined to be deposed in Hill’s suit. A hearing had been set for Oct. 11, at which Bauer’s attorneys had asked a judge to order Hill to undergo a mental health examination.
“Quite frankly, regardless of the outcome in court, I’ve paid significantly more in legal fees than Lindsey Hill could ever pay me in her entire life,” Bauer said in a video statement.
He also said Hill’s attorneys had “approached me multiple times” about a financial settlement.
“As I have done since Day 1, I refused to pay her even a single cent,” Bauer said.
In that email, Hill’s attorneys said neither Bauer nor his representatives were “parties or signatories” to the payment agreement and neither Bauer nor his representatives “ever offered Lindsey Hill any amount of money to resolve her claims.”
Bryan Freedman, one of Hill’s attorneys, said in a statement: “In what turned out to be an outstanding resolution for Lindsey, neither Lindsey nor anyone on her behalf paid anything to Bauer. Not a single dollar. Even better, Lindsey received $300,000 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.”
In 2021, Hill was denied a restraining order against Bauer, and the Los Angeles County district attorney declined to charge Bauer with a crime.
Bauer and his attorneys last November asked the court to throw out Hill’s suit, noting she had made the same allegations of assault and battery in her request for a restraining order. Since that request had been denied, Bauer argued, she should not get a second chance to allege actions for which he had been cleared.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge James Selna wrote that the denial of the restraining order was “due to insufficient evidence that the parties will have contact in the future.” He noted that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dianna Gould-Saltman did not determine whether Bauer had committed an act of abuse and that neither party had asked her to make such a determination.
“The state court proceedings did not necessarily decide that Bauer did not batter or sexually assault [her],” Selna wrote.
After filing the defamation suit against Hill, Bauer said, he was able to access additional materials, including a video showing Hill “smirking” in his bed “without any mark on her face” after the second of two sexual encounters. After a hospital examination later that day, Hill was diagnosed with an “acute head injury” and “assault by manual strangulation.”
Under MLB policy, a player can be suspended even if he was not charged with a crime. After an investigation that included interviews with Hill and other women who had made similar allegations against Bauer, Commissioner Rob Manfred suspended him for two years, later reduced by an arbitrator to 194 games.
In 2015, MLB began cracking down on assault. Of the 16 players previous to Trevor Bauer who were investigated for assault, 14 served suspensions.
Bauer filed defamation suits against five other parties, all of which have also been resolved, none with any payment to him. He remains active in litigation against an Arizona woman who did agree to provide a deposition for Hill’s attorneys.
The Dodgers released Bauer in January, paying him the $22.5 million owed for this season. Under the suspension, Bauer lost $37.5 million in salary from his three-year, $102-million contract.
No other MLB team signed him, even though the Dodgers still would have had to pay all but the minimum $720,000. Bauer is playing in Japan this season.
“I’ve been forced to defend my integrity and my reputation in a very public setting, but hopefully this is the last time I have to do so,” Bauer said, “as I’d prefer to remain focused on doing my job, winning baseball games and entertaining fans around the world.”
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