Kapler says he didn’t do enough for alleged assault victim

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — New San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler said Wednesday that he should have sought the guidance of experts four years ago when dealing with a 17-year-old girl who contacted him about an assault reportedly witnessed by Los Angeles Dodgers minor leaguers.

The teen later accused one of the players of a sexual crime, something Kapler said he didn’t know in 2015 when the Dodgers organization opted not to contact police. Kapler was the Dodgers’ farm director at the time.

In hindsight, Kapler and Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, who was then the Dodgers’ general manager, said they wished they had been more supportive of the young woman and asked for advice from the outside.

“I think this is the right time to say that I’m sorry that I didn’t make all the right moves,” Kapler said as he was formally introduced by the Giants. “Everything that I did I acted on from a place of goodness and from my heart and wanting to do the right thing, but I was naive. I was in over my skis and trying to do things on my own when it was very clear that I needed counsel.”

The Washington Post reported in February that Kapler did not alert police of the alleged assault in 2015. The newspaper said Kapler received an email from the 17-year-old saying she had been assaulted by two women during a night of partying with two Los Angeles minor leaguers. The girl later told police she was also sexually assaulted by one of the players. Kapler tried to arrange a dinner with the girl and the two players, and engaged in discussions with the girl’s grandmother, but he never alerted authorities.

Kapler posted on his personal website earlier this year that he didn’t know about the sexual assault allegation, saying, “There was no allegation of sexual assault made to me during my handling of...

source https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Kapler-says-he-didn-t-do-enough-for-alleged-14833149.php