Woman accusing MLB star of assault says they couldn’t have had consensual sex because she’s a lesbian
Yasiel Puig. (Getty/ David Maxwell)
The woman accusing Major League Baseball (MLB) star Yasiel Puig of sexual assault has said they couldn’t have had consensual sex because she’s an “out and proud lesbian”.
The woman filed a lawsuit against Puig in 2020, alleging that he sexually assaulted her in 2018 in the bathroom at a Los Angeles Lakers game.
She has accused Puig of sexual battery, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and false imprisonment.
She claims that Puig followed her to the bathroom during the game, which she attended with her fiancée, before he “attacked her and forcibly held her while he masturbated until she finally broke free and fled the restroom”.
Yasiel Puig playing for the Cincinnati Reds in 2019 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Getty/ Joe Robbins)
The free agent, who has played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians, has publicly denied the allegations.
Puig released a statement on Twitter on Tuesday (13 April), in which he said the woman’s claims of sexual assault were “false and malicious allegations”, and insisted that the two of them had engaged in “consensual sex”.
I released a statement along with my attorneys today. I am encouraging you all to please read. Thank you. pic.twitter.com/agTMeQ3Onz
— Yasiel Puig (@YasielPuig) April 13, 2021
In response, attorneys representing the alleged victim released their own statement.
Taylor Rayfield, a partner at Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, told the Cincinnati Enquirer that “Puig and his attorneys are making false and defamatory statements about the facts of this case to the press, in a transparently desperate attempt to curry favour with the league”.
In Rayfield’s statement, she included a quote from the accuser, identified as “Jane Doe”.
She said: “I am an out and proud lesbian and have been during my entire adult life.
“My female fiancée and I were enjoying a Lakers game at the Staples Center when this attack occurred.
“The notion that I would leave my fiancée, and run off into a bathroom, so someone I did not know could do this to me, or do something worse, is demeaning and ridiculous.”
