Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer on Tuesday filed a defamation lawsuit against The Athletic and former MLB reporter Molly Knight for allegedly excluding pieces of information in reports of a sexual assault claim against him last year.
The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, which Bauer announced he was filing in a tweet, accused the sports news outlet and Knight of igniting a campaign to harass Bauer and smear his name. The lawsuit alleges that The Athletic had obtained medical records from Bauer’s accuser but “[spread] the false narrative” that Bauer fractured her skull, which was not shown in the accuser’s CT scans.
As of Wednesday, the article in The Athletic was updated after Bauer’s representatives stated that while medical records showed that “the woman was initially diagnosed with signs of a basilar skull fracture, a subsequent CT scan found no acute fracture.”
Bauer also alleges in the suit that The Athletic’s “false reporting led to a proliferation of articles and tweets referencing a nonexistent skull fracture.” The lawsuit claims that Knight tweeted false reports that say Bauer fractured the woman’s skull.
A representative from The Athletic told The Hill that the outlet is “confident” in its reporting and plans “to defend against [Bauer’s] claim.”
Law enforcement and MLB launched investigations into Bauer after a woman accused him of assault last year. She claimed that the Dodgers pitcher choked and punched her during sexual encounters at his home, saying that she was “terrified” and “couldn’t speak and fight back.”
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced in February that they would not press charges against Bauer, stating that they were “unable to prove the relevant charges beyond a reasonable doubt.”
In a YouTube video Bauer released following the district attorney’s decision, titled “The Truth,” the pitcher said he had “not materially misled the court, as it was found that this woman did.”
“I never assaulted her in any way, at any time,” Bauer claimed. “And, while we did have consensual rough sex, the disturbing acts and conduct she described simply did not occur.”
The news of the lawsuit comes after Bauer filed another lawsuit earlier this month accusing Deadspin of defamation for reporting that he fractured the woman’s skull.