Report: Dodgers official didn’t report assault claim
No one with team went to police after 2015 incident
A Los Angeles Dodgers official failed to report to police about a 17-year-old girl’s assault claim at a spring-training hotel in Glendale in 2015, according to a published report.
An official with the Los Angeles Dodgers failed to contact police after a 17year-old girl reported in 2015 she became drunk in a hotel room near the team’s spring-training complex with two minor league players, one of whom later posted video of her on social media, the Washington Post reported late Friday.
The Post report said that after a caseworker for the Arizona Department of Child Safety contacted police, the girl further claimed she was sexually assaulted while drunk and “struggling to remain conscious.”
The Dodgers share a spring training complex with the Chicago White Sox near 91st Avenue and Camelback Road.
The Post report singles out Gabe Kapler, the former director of player development who now is the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, for failing to go to police after the February 2015 incident in Glendale.
The report said nobody else with the organization went to authorities either, but Kapler did try to arrange a meeting with the girl and the players and talk to the girl’s grandmother.
Kapler addressed the reports on his personal website, saying he had emailed with the victim and her grandmother while speaking to the accused players but didn’t hear sexual assault allegations from any party.
“While a serious physical assault allegation was made against the two women in the room (in an environment that the two players helped to create), none of these accounts involved any sexual assault allegations, and no physical assault allegations were made against either Dodgers player,” Kapler wrote.
Kapler acknowledged it was fair to question why he hadn’t contacted
police, but said he decided to drop the issue after the girl sent him a followup email saying she didn’t want to talk about what happened any further.
“My feeling at the time was that the victim should have the right to make the decision about what she wanted to do,” Kapler wrote. “Perhaps I should have taken it out of her hands, but my intention was to respect the victim and her wishes.”
Glendale police began investigating after the sex-assault allegation
was made, but a Dodgers attorney prevented the players from speaking with investigators, the Post reported. The victim later opted not to cooperate with police and no charges were filed, the report said, adding that police suspected the girl was a victim of sex trafficking.
The accuser, now 21, still lives in the area, the Post reported, and is listed as a “transient” in an unrelated case in December.
In the story, an attorney representing the Dodgers said neither Kapler or anyone he consulted were aware of a sexassault allegation when
they decided not to contact police. The attorney said the organization “acted appropriately.”
Kapler told the Post he acted in accordance with
club policy and advice offered by team lawyers and human resources personnel.
The Arizona Republic reached out to Glendale police multiple times and had not yet received a response as of deadline. An attempt to reach a Dodgers spokesman was unsuccessful.