In a YouTube video posted after the Los Angeles prosecutors’ decision not to charge him on Tuesday, Bauer defended his behavior toward the woman in California.
“While we did have consensual rough sex, the disturbing acts and conduct that she described simply did not occur,” he said.
He continued, “You may not be my biggest fan or agree with everything that I’ve said over the years. That’s OK. I’m not a perfect person. And if you want to judge me for engaging in rough sex with a woman that I hardly knew, that’s OK, too. In evaluating my life in the recent months, it’s clear I’ve made some poor choices, particularly in regards to the people I’ve chosen to associate with. But I am not the person that this woman, her lawyers and certain members of the media have painted me to be. Allegations like this are extremely serious and they should be thoroughly investigated, as has happened in this matter.”
The woman’s legal team declined to comment on Tuesday.
In her past court filings and her testimony, the woman has said that she initiated contact with Bauer and that what began as a consensual relationship in April, with some agreed-upon rough sex, led to sexual acts that were not consensual. She has also said she was choked with her hair until she lost consciousness. She said that she returned to Bauer’s house in Pasadena in May and established a safe word that would signal her desire to stop but that she was again choked until she lost consciousness and was punched.
Bauer, who won the National League Cy Young Award in 2020 with Cincinnati, signed a free-agent deal with the Dodgers, that year’s World Series champions, for three years and a guaranteed $102 million before the 2021 season. He went 8-5 with a 2.59 E.R.A. for the Dodgers. He spent the second half of the season on paid administrative leave, which is not considered disciplinary but is a temporary procedural move used during pending investigations.