What to expect in Trevor Bauer case as hearing over temporary restraining order approaches

LOS ANGELES – Less than two miles southwest of Dodger Stadium, Trevor Bauer walked into a courthouse here July 23 and faced a judge. 

A simple question was up for debate: Should the Dodgers pitcher continue to be legally restrained from a woman who has accused him of assault during two sexual encounters at his home this year in Pasadena?

The hearing ended up being delayed until next week, when Judge Dianna Gould-Saltman is set to evaluate the evidence against Bauer before giving her answer. But much more is at stake as Pasadena police and Major League Baseball continue to investigate.

“Everything rises and falls with this hearing, especially for Bauer,” said David Ring, a Los Angeles attorney who represents sexual abuse victims but is not involved in this case.

Here are six clues about what to expect starting Monday, according to court records and information gleaned from the July 23rd court appearance. 

1. The woman’s witness list includes a forensic nurse who conducted a sexual assault exam on the woman after the second alleged incident in May. The list from July 22 also included three police detectives, an expert on domestic violence, the woman's best friend, her father and Bauer.

“It tells me the petitioner believes that they have strong forensic evidence to support her allegations, and that it’s not simply her word against his, but there are other experts and physical evidence that would support her story,” said Laurie Levenson, a Loyola Law School professor in Los Angeles.

In her request for a restraining order, the woman included photos of facial injuries. She was diagnosed at a hospital in San Diego after the second encounter with an acute head injury and assault by strangulation. She said Bauer choked her unconscious during both incidents and punched her the second time.

Bauer’s representatives have denied the allegations and said his relations with the woman were consensual. In court records, they show digital messages in which the woman asks Bauer for “rough” sex, including being choked out and slapped in the face. They also show messages from her to a cousin, including one that reads, "It was consensual but like didnt expect two black eyes!? Like he def took it too far dont you think lol."

Bauer, 30, has been on paid administrative leave since July 2 after signing a three-year, $102 million contract with the Dodgers in February.

2. A male friend of the woman’s was subpoenaed to testify for Bauer’s case and is among at least three witnesses Bauer’s team has planned to call. The friend came forward with messages between himself and the woman from around the time of her first encounter with Bauer. Bauer’s team is likely to use them to generate doubt about the woman’s credibility and motivation for engaging with Bauer, whom she said she met on Instagram. The friend asked not to be identified until he testifies because of the sensitivity of the situation.

“The defense is going to focus on undercutting the petitioner’s credibility, and one way to undercut their credibility is to have witnesses come up with ulterior motives in bringing these allegations,” Levenson said.

Paste BN Sports obtained at least some of messages provided by the friend and asked the opinion of an attorney who is not involved in this case but also has represented sex abuse survivors.

“I don’t think we have enough information to reach any larger conclusions about what did or didn’t happen,” based on the friend’s messages provided to Paste BN, said John Clune, the attorney.

3. It is expected to be a mini-trial lasting several days. Ten or more witnesses could be called to testify in the state court of Judge Gould-Saltman. This is unusual for a civil hearing about a temporary restraining order (TRO).

In a normal sexual assault case, the suspect typically might be arrested and then ordered to stay away from the accuser by a judge in a criminal court.

In this case, Bauer has not been arrested or charged because law enforcement has not determined whether there is enough evidence to do so. In the meantime, the woman asked for a temporary restraining order against Bauer in civil court, saying she waited to do so to see how the criminal investigation would proceed and was concerned that no arrest had been made. “I am scared and in fear,” she said in court documents in June.

The court granted that request and set this hearing to decide whether it should remain in force.

“It’s like the TRO of the century,” Levenson said. “What’s odd in this one is police and law enforcement authorities have not decided whether they’re going to move forward in this case. They haven’t made those credibility calls, so all of that is being put on the TRO process.”

4. The proceedings could be highly influential beyond whether the court restrains Bauer from the woman. If this wasn’t clear before, it was on July 23, when Bauer's agent, Jon Fetterolf, attended the delayed hearing, along with several other lawyers and witnesses for both sides. Both police and MLB have a keen interest in seeing what comes out of this hearing because they have not made a decision about Bauer’s culpability.

“It could actually turn the police investigation one way or the other,” said Ring, who has represented one of the women in the rape cases against film producer Harvey Weinstein. “If I’m the police and I know this hearing is going forward relatively soon … why rush when you’ve got this spectacle of a hearing and maybe it assists you with deciding whether there’s going to be an arrest or not?”

Likewise, Levenson said in police investigations “you usually have just one side asking questions,” as opposed to two sides in a hearing like this. “So there’s a lot to be learned,” she said.

Whether MLB disciplines Bauer depends on what commissioner Rob Manfred considers to be “just cause” for such discipline under baseball’s joint domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy. A criminal conviction is not required for that.

If the judge believes there’s enough evidence against Bauer to keep the restraining order in place, theoretically that increases the pressure for MLB to keep him away from baseball, too, or vice versa.

5. Bauer will be there, as well as the woman. They sat only about six feet apart when they appeared in court July 23. But Bauer might invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to testify against himself when called to the witness stand. His lawyer, Shawn Holley, has advised him to do so because anything he says in court could be used against him in the pending criminal investigation.

Will he listen to his attorney? On July 23, Holley suggested the judge “ask him at the appropriate time whether he intends to follow my advice.”

Attorneys for the woman estimated that Bauer and the woman each will testify for two hours, helping set up a decision for the judge about whom to believe. Messages between the two will be part of the evidence. Her legal team even assembled them into a poster to show in court July 23. For example, her request for a restraining order included copies of messages between them, including one in which she referenced head and facial injuries. “I feel so bad that this happened,” Bauer responded, according to her court filing. “Wish I could be there with you through it.”

6. It could get delayed again or might not happen at all. The hearing scheduled for July 23 was kicked around to several different courtrooms before ending up in the court of Gould-Saltman, whose job is to determine whether the evidence warrants the issuance of a permanent restraining order. Then the hearing got delayed to Aug. 2 before being continued again to Aug. 16.

In the meantime, Bauer could try to make the case go away by paying the woman a settlement. If he did, what would MLB do? Would he return to the Dodgers after all of this?

Stay tuned.

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