A player secretly hosted and accused of sexual assault

A Los Angeles Dodgers minor player who allegedly sexually assaulted a maid at an Arizona hotel in 2015 was sent back to Latin America before being cut off three months later – to be subsequently taken over by another team.

The unidentified player, who signed with another MLB team a month later before being released, has never been charged, but a team leader wrote in an email Internal obtained from the Daily Beast that he had to consider himself "extremely lucky". not the case.

"[He] He was very lucky not to be in prison, "said Roman Barinas, head of the Dodgers' international scout, in an email.

The team, according to Dodgers operations manager in Arizona, investigated the alleged incident at a Hampton Inn in Glendale, questioning both the player and the housekeeper.

"[The player] said he did not do it, "said team leader Juan Rodriguez at the Daily Beast. "She said that he did."

In an e-mail to the team, the hotel manager reported an "unacceptable" situation in which the minor league player harassed a cleaning lady "for weeks", repeatedly asking her to go out with him.

"She does not stop telling her that she has a boyfriend and that she's not interested but that he keeps commenting," wrote the director of the Hotel, adding that the athlete simply did not take for an answer.

Then, "things have improved," according to the manager, when the minor ligeuse "came behind her and grabbed her" while she was cleaning another room.

"She pushed him back and he came back and he still caught her," continued the hotel manager's email. "She told him that she was not interested and that he had to leave and he did."

The player – who was not identified by the Daily Beast because he was not charged with a crime – remained connected to the team for some three months. He was then formally released, according to the MLB's records cited by the website, before signing a minor league contract with another team. He then played in an undetermined number of minor league games before being released.

But there is no indication that the Dodgers have ever informed the league officials of these allegations, and the team officials refused to discuss the matter.

"Staff problems are dealt with quickly when they are reported to the organization, and we do not publicly comment on these issues," the club said in a statement.

The incident "seems to highlight a gap" in the way MLB officials handle allegations of sexual assault in the league, particularly when an accused player is punished by a team before to be signed by another, according to The Daily Beast.

MLB officials declined to comment on whether league teams had informed the MLB of allegations of sexual misconduct on the part of minor leaguers or if they were at the MLB. current charges against the hotel Arizona.

"This has been treated as an internal matter by the Dodgers and we consider that the case is closed," said a league official in a statement.

The accused player could not be reached for comment and his former agent did not return messages requesting a comment. The housekeeper, meanwhile, was not identified in the team's e-mails and was not interviewed by The Daily Beast.

But other team officials said the charges, as communicated to them by the hotel manager, had "embarrassed" them for the organization. .

"I assured him that we would settle the situation quickly and that it would not be a problem anymore," wrote Gabe Kapler, then team development manager for the team, who now manages the Philadelphia Phillies.

In response, Barinas said that sending the player to a post-season development program called AZ Instructs would be a "privilege," according to E-mails.

"His actions just show us that he does not deserve this privilege yet," Barinas wrote. "I suggest that we report to him [Dominican Republic] Gives to learn more about what we represent as an organization in an environment more suited to its level of maturity and understanding of American culture. This is my first reaction, I am ready to be convinced otherwise. "

Rodriguez told the Daily Beast that the allegation was taken "seriously enough" and said he believed the player was suspended.

"He was asked to go home," he told the website.

The housekeeper, meanwhile, requested that no police report is filed on the incident, according to a source familiar with the case. And a search of police records, according to The Daily Beast, has revealed no cases of sexual assault at the hotel's address in 2015.