An Arizona woman who accused former L.A. Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer of sexual assault from an encounter in 2021 is now facing charges of fraud and theft by extortion in Maricopa County, ESPN reports.
The woman, who claimed she was raped and impregnated by Bauer before she suffered a miscarriage, made several million-dollar demands of the former MLB star before ultimately suing him in a civil lawsuit. Bauer countersued the accuser, saying that the two shared one consensual sexual encounter after which she faked a pregnancy to extort money from him.
The allegations and subsequent lawsuit resulted in Bauer receiving a 324-game ban – the longest non-lifetime ban ever doled out by the MLB – which was ultimately reduced to 194 games and his reinstatement in 2023. It came in the wake of allegations from three other women, one of whom Bauer settled with out of court. Despite his reinstatement, the Dodgers released the pitcher in January of 2023. That left him free to sign with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars of the Nippon Professional Baseball League.
According to the charges, the accuser, Darcy Adanna Esemonu, “knowingly did obtain a benefit from … Trevor Anthony Bauer by means of fraudulent pretenses, representation, promises, or material omissions.” Esemonu also “knowingly did obtain or sought to obtain property or services … by means of a threat to in the future expose a secret or an asserted fact in a social media message or in any other manner” involving another individual, according to the indictment. According to ESPN, the other individual involved is not associated with Bauer.
An arraignment hearing in Esemonu’s fraud case is now scheduled for April 26 in Maricopa County. Her representation did not respond to ESPN’s request for comment on Tuesday.
In a statement provided to ESPN by his lawyers, Bauer said Esemonu demanded $3.6 million from him and “claimed I forced her to have an abortion” and “when I refused to pay her the $3.6 million she was asking for, she made up a bogus sexual assault claim and filed a civil suit against me.”
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