REPORT: Gabe Kapler did not contact police when told of assault involving Dodgers minor leaguers in 2015

On Friday night, The Washington Post published a story about Gabe Kapler’s response to an email from a 17-year-old girl in February 2015 alleging that she had been assaulted while partying with two Dodgers minor leaguers and two women in a Glendale, Arizona hotel room. At the time, Kapler was the Dodgers’ director of player development.

The story as published by the Post should be read in its entirety.

From the Washington Post story:

After consuming about half the bottle, the girl wrote, she vomited on the bed, angering the two women, who threw her out of the room, kicking and punching her in the process. Rather than come to her aid, according to the girl, one of the Dodgers players videotaped the beating on his phone, and then posted the video on Snapchat.

“The boys got me drunk and the girls beat me up,” she wrote. “Your player . . . videotaped it all.”

Kapler didn’t contact police, records show, nor did others with the Dodgers he consulted. Instead, Kapler tried to arrange a dinner with the girl and the players, and engaged in discussions with the girl’s grandmother.

According to the report, Kapler communicated with the girl’s grandmother, who told him the alleged victim had run away from home six months before. The dinner never occurred.

A week later, while being interviewed by police officers for shoplifting, the alleged victim said one of the players had sexually assaulted her prior to the beating, putting “his hand under her bra, and then down the front of her pants,” according to the story. The police suspected she was “a victim of sex trafficking.”

Kapler, in a written statement conveyed by the story, said that the steps he took in response to receiving the email were “in line with club policy and advice offered by Dodgers’ lawyers and human resources personnel” and that he “was not aware a sexual assault” until a reporter got in touch with him about this story.

Updates will follow if this story develops.

UPDATE (2/2/19, 3:00 p.m. ET): Gabe Kapler has issued a statement on his personal website. The statement can be read here. At the time of this update, the site is experiencing loading issues; the statement can be read through screencaps below.