- Medical experts took the stand in LA Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer’s domestic violence hearing.
- Kelly Valencia, the nurse who examined the woman who accused Bauer of sexual assault, testified.
- “I had never seen that,” Valencia said about injuries to the woman’s genitals. “It was frankly alarming.”
A judge heard testimony from a nurse who examined the Trevor Bauer accuser, during the second day of hearings related to sexual assault and assault allegations against the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher.
Forensic nurse examiner Kelly Valencia, who was called by the woman’s legal team to testify about alleged injuries sustained by the accuser, administered a SART (Sexual Assault Response Team) exam on Bauer’s accuser in May.
On Tuesday, she told the court, “I had never seen that before,” about the alleged “red and purple” bruising around the genitals of the accuser.
“It was frankly alarming,” she told the court.
On June 29, the accuser, who Insider has chosen not to name, filed an ex parte restraining order against Bauer accusing the MLB pitcher of assaulting her during two consensual sexual encounters in April and May. She is seeking a five-year extension to this restraining order.
Bauer has denied all wrongdoing and Bauer’s lawyer, Jon Fetterolf, denied allegations of sexual abuse and said the encounters between Bauer and the woman were consensual.
Bauer is currently on leave from the Dodgers, and the Pasadena Police Department is conducting an investigation into the allegations, according to a local news report.
In the restraining order and during sworn testimony in court this week, the woman alleged that during the second encounter, Bauer strangled her with her own hair until she lost consciousness and repeatedly punched her in the face, buttocks, and genitals during sexual intercourse, which she said led her to seek medical treatment.
Valencia, sporting thick-rimmed red glasses, a black and white polka dot shirt under a blazer with gold buttons, testified that she treated the accuser at Palomar Forensics on May 16, after the accuser was referred to her by the San Diego Police Department. The SART exam is an evidentiary medical assessment conducted with alleged victims of sexual assault in coordination with medical professionals, law enforcement, and advocates.
“When she walked in I noticed visible facial injuries,” Valencia told the court, adding in her testimony that during the exam she noted that the woman had injuries to her face, genitals, and buttocks. She said the woman also described being choked by her own hair.
Valencia also testified that the accuser appeared to have “raccoon eyes,” explaining that it is a common bruising reaction to strangulation. However, she declined to connect the observation with the woman’s own testimony about being choked, saying it was “beyond my scope.”
Valencia testified that she did not believe the woman needed further treatment, but that the woman did have a follow-up appointment scheduled with a nurse.
During cross-examination, the defense focused on the nature of the woman’s injuries.
Bauer’s attorney Fetterolf asked if Ibuprofen, which the accuser had taken, could “exacerbate bruising.”
Valencia agreed that Ibuprofen can exacerbate bruising but said she could not testify that the photos of bruising may look worse.
Fetterolf also asked about the possibility of “intentional self-harm” as a cause of injury, to which Valencia testified that the woman “did not” engage in self-harm.
Valencia told the court that during her SART exam, she recalled the woman making a claim about being sexually assaulted during her first encounter with Bauer. In the SART exam, Valencia testified to the court that the woman told her, “it was like the first time but with marks.”
In the initial restraining order and in her testimony the accuser said that she connected with Bauer after tagging him in an Instagram story. She testified that after they talked and he invited her to his Pasadena residence. She told the judge that at the residence they talked for hours, began kissing and he soon after strangled her to the point that she lost consciousness and she woke up to being anally penetrated by Bauer, which she said did not consent to.
In court, she also testified that the second time they met up, Bauer again strangled her to the point of unconsciousness and then punched her all over her body, which she told the court, made her feel “like a rag-doll” and “like my soul left my body.”
Bauer’s attorneys have argued that the encounters were wholly consensual, citing text messages sent by the accuser, and claimed she had previous sexual encounters with other baseball players.
The hearing is set to resume on Wednesday with additional witnesses.
