The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Postgame Show: Trevor Bauer

Episode Date: October 4, 2023

Gus Garcia-Roberts of the Washington Post has been covering the Trevor Bauer case for the last 2 years and is here to share all the facts around the case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You have the latest phone, now take advantage of a great price on a 5G subscription phone plan. It's the perfect deal for anyone who could use some savings right now. Subscribe today at publicmobile.ca. Different is calling. Stugots for many months now, I don't like hiding from any issues in sports, but I have felt uncomfortable trying to figure out how to fairly talk about what is happening and what has happened to Trevor Bauer and around Trevor Bauer, because there's a lot of stuff here and I don't know everything that's true. There are two people who know what happened here, even though there are more

accusers, and Trevor Bauer is taking a bit of a victory lap by video and with an army behind him today celebrating something. And I've been legitimately confused when these some things that are being celebrated gather a crowd of people who are now fighting for men and fighting for men against women and false claims and and money grabbing all athletes are subject to these kinds of possibilities. But most women, and I try to be an ally to women without being too overtly, additionally woke. But you're just, hey, how about we not be super violent to women and not hate women?

Now you have a case in Trevor Bauer, who is very litigious, who is telling us that some things that are known here are different through his prison. And I wanted to bring on somebody, Gus Garcia-Roberts, who's been reporting on this for two and a half years because he can tell us what the facts are here He's been covering this and he can come closer to telling me what's true here when I don't know what's true and none of us really know what's true With the most fact gathering that he's done so thank you He does this work for the Washington Post and for two and a half years you've been on this story So what can you tell me? Not macro how this turns into a political issue where Trevor Bauer now has an army of

support behind him, but explain to me just the details, the facts here, Gus, as you join us. And thank you for doing so on what it is that you find most interesting about everything happening with this story. Sure. Well, thanks. Thanks for having me on, Dan. So essentially, you know, the fact of what happened yesterday

was that Bauer had filed suit against his first accuser, a woman who had sought a restraining order against him in 2021. It basically derailed his career from that point going forward. He had filed suit against her, you know, he's not going to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be

able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be that they had both settled that suit. So neither side is paying the other. Both, as you can see, are denying the others' claims, continuing to deny the other's claims.

The accuser, whose name is Lindsay Hill, she received $300,000 in an insurance payout because her insurance company was handling her defense. And I suppose it was worth more to them to pay her the $300,000 than to continue, to then to go to trial. So essentially you have what is not, at first glance, kind of this,

not a real, scintillating story. And if anything, it's somewhat, it would seem like it's somewhat deflating for Trevor Bauer, right? He has settling, he had brought a defamation case against Lindsay Hill. She had filed a counterclaim for sexual battery, and they're both letting those claims go. But Bauer also released this video in which he read from what he said where text messages that he got in discovery in the suit. I get the feeling this was the first time that a lot of people that are now kind of latching on to this had learned of the Trevor Bauer matter in any detail. And in this video he sort of expresses something he's expressed before. But I think this time was

one of the first times it's really caught on virally, was that I am being railroaded by this woman. And that this was, as his theory goes and this was the theory behind the lawsuit. This was from the very beginning, a plot to get me to engage and ever rougher sex and with this woman to the point of injuring her and getting and her trying to get a financial settlement from him. What do you do with the other accusers? I'm sorry, you can continue, forgive me.

Sure. No, no, that's fine. That's fine. I've tried to get, I asked, Bowers, some of the text messages that he read, I were familiar. It's not really news that Lindsey Hill texted really regrettable things. You know, this was that those text messages of that sort were basically the reason why the police here in Los Angeles did not charge Bauer. And she, you know, she sort of her explanation that she gave on the stand in a restraining order hearing that seems like ages ago, was that she was being sarcastic, that she was being flippant,

that she's a recovering alcoholic that has problems with confidence and that she, none of those texts, even though the way they are presented, makes it seem like she is laying out a precise plot to get injured in sex and then gain a settlement from Trevor Bauer. She says that those texts were actually about

wanting to be like a baseball wife to Trevor Bauer. And there are texts that the context is important, which is the reason why I asked Trevor Bauer's representatives to give me the new text that he was reading from, and they declined to do so. And yeah, I mean, Dan, to kind of address what you were bringing up, you know, there's Lindsey Hill was the first. And I think that's probably the reason why she's caught so much iron from Trevor Bauer, because if it wasn't for her coming forward, no other women may

have come forward. But there are at least three other women, all of whom Bauer has acknowledged he had relationships with, who have made very similar allegations involving choking and choking unconscious and punching and things like that, typically in a sexual situation. Gus, as a platform right now in America, it works as a platform, you're not the victim, I'm the victim, you're not the victim, I'm the victim. You have gone through court records,

you have heard a secret recording, you've been on this story for two and a half years. Please tell us here best you can gather through the facts. What you think is accurate here about what happened yesterday and what has happened since as his marketing team and people work to try and get him back in America. This is all, it felt like what yesterday was in doing that the way that he did it

as soon as that came down was a victory lap because she only gets $300, thousand dollars which is not my money. It's insurance money. I make it go away. I get to start over, right? And then behind him gather a whole bunch of people saying that's right. Women can falsely accuse. So what's truest here for you based on the facts? Right. Well, I think it's useful to sort of go back to the beginning when this allegation was first made specifically by Lindsey Hill. Because, you know, she didn't, at the hospital who informed the police that she had domestic violence type injuries and the police came to her.

And I watched a body cam video in which they're asking if she wants to press charges and she says, I don't know. You know, she says, if I do, my life changes, his life changes, I don't know. Later she decides she does. But it sort of runs counter to the narrative that from the very beginning, she was attempting to derail his career publicly by pressing charges in order to get a settlement.

And you're referring to, when you refer to a secret tape, the police had her make a phone call to Bauer, in which she talked to him about her allegations before he knew that she was talking to the police. And it's a pretty illuminating phone call in which he acknowledges for one hitting her. And that's something that he has outright denied that he ever hitting her. And, you know, that's something that he has outright denied, that he ever hit her. But in the phone call, he repeatedly acknowledges it, says he didn't do it that hard.

And he, you know, he does say in the phone call that he thought that what he was doing was, was with her consent. My understanding is, in his deposition in this court case, he has now said, you know, the reason why I acknowledged it or appeared to technology in that phone call was because that was not the forum to litigate these allegations. And that was a phone call that was taped by the police and later obtained by Lindsay Hill. And so I think what makes it really hard for people to wrap their heads around, Hills case and the other women's case is by the very nature of these allegations,

is by the very nature of these allegations, it's very murky because all of these women had consensual sexual relationships with Trevor Bauer. What they claim is that while they were having sex with Trevor Bauer, that things happen that were beyond their consent, including choking and punching and essentially beating them. And that's a really difficult kind of legal bar, I think. So I think as far as the police investigation, I think a major reason that did not result in charges was because of how high

of a legal bar that is, especially with a defendant who has major resources, and Lindsay's text messages, which could certainly be construed as they are now, to be shown to show some sort of a scheme. And so, you know, I think one other thing worth noting is, as you mentioned, Bauer's litigious, right? He has gone, I think it was pretty, you know, there was something pointed about the fact that he sued Lindsay Hill four days before the discipline by Major League Baseball, which would have made Lindsey Hill and the other women key witnesses against him. And, you know, Hill is not only the first one, but she's

one of the last ones. The other women who have accused them, one of them dropped out before the Major League Baseball arbitration hearing. And the other one, did not want anything to do, Lindsey Hills lost after that, she did testify in the Major League Baseball arbitration hearing, but after that she was done. And I think that there's a real kind of exhaustion factor in going up against Trevor Bauer.

And I think the result for that is that Lindsay Hill has become this focal point. She's the only one that's still there. She's the only one who's losing. But this is why the system and everything works against victims who try to come forward and not be victims again because the system crushes them, money crushes them, privilege crushes them. Like this is, it's textbook, what it is that you're describing is the facts of this.

So I will leave you on this note if you would. You've talked to all of the accusers. You saw the Trevor Bauer video yesterday when it was released. You have two and a half years worth of fact gathering on this. When you're watching, not from a news perspective, from a human being standpoint, given how much you poured into this story, you're watching the Trevor Bauer video and thinking, facts aside, just emotionally. What are you feeling as you watch that play out yesterday, an orchestrated campaign to do this to an accuser in a way that paints him as the total victim?

I mean, I saw it as a total punishment, right? I mean, he's been attempting to punish Lindsey Hill since she came forward. He's tried to get court fees. He sued her. He wants her life destroyed. And what I saw that was as this, you know, I'm settling, but on the way out, I'm going to use my platform. You're just somebody on Instagram. I have presumably hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers. I'm going to use my platform to put together something that's going to punish you. And it really caught on. And I would be shocked if he's not feeling very punished by the sort of wrath that's on

the internet against her today. And caught on, right? Because they then became politically weaponized, correct? Yes, I think I sort of spoke to this growing backlash against the Me Too movement. Yeah, you saw Elon Musk bantering with Trevor Bauer about a Roger Clemens tweeting something suggestive about it, kind of suggested that he's considering being on Trevor Bauer's side. This was a guy who I think previously was somewhat of a pariah and Major League Baseball. So it was it was it was interesting to see you know how he was finally able to take this step forward in

PR that he's been trying to take for a while now. Gus thank you for being on with us sir. Appreciate the information. Thanks so much. Thanks so much.