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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Woman Claims Baseball Player Gave Her STDs

BROOKLYN (CN) — A woman seeking $11.5 million claims in court that a series of sexual romps with Toronto Blue Jays standout Edwin Encarnacion gave her Chlamydia and herpes.

Ashley Lebron sued Encarnacion in Brooklyn Federal Court on Monday. She says she's known his family for many years and first met him in 2013.

The two had unprotected sex several times in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic in February, according to her lawsuit.

When she confronted him about the burning she was feeling while urinating, and after going to the doctor, he allegedly told her "she may have picked up [genital herpes] when they went 'four-wheeling' and she swam in the river."

He later backtracked, and stopped talking to her, the complaint states. Lebron says he knew he had herpes and Chlamydia when they hooked up.

In her long-winded complaint, she says she met up with the slugger years after their families grew up together in the Dominican Republic.

The two were reunited at a Blue Jays vs. New York Yankees game in September 2015, and they started texting and calling each other, according to the lawsuit.

Lebron says she had protected sex with one of Encarnacion's teammates multiple times that month.

In February of this year, Encarnacion flew Lebron out to the Dominican Republic, she claims. They went four-wheeling, hung out and smoked a joint.

That's when they first had unprotected sex, according to her complaint. All the while, Encarnacion never told Lebron that he had a girlfriend, she says.

Once again, she was allegedly invited to hang out, have dinner, drink and watch TV. They ended up having unprotected sex a few more times, once after she was invited over "for some soup," the complaint states.

However, when Lebron got back to John F. Kennedy Airport from Punta Cana, she felt "weak," had the chills and felt like she had a high fever, according to the lawsuit.

She started to feel burning while at the airport, and concerned that she had the mosquito-borne virus Zika, she went to the Long Island Jewish Hospital, the complaint states.

She got a pap smear and was told she had blisters on both sides of her vagina, as well as a urinary tract infection, she alleges.

But that wasn't the end of it. She says she then got a sore throat, felt weak and went back to the hospital.

Lebron says she told Encarnacion to get checked for genital herpes, but that he texted her saying he did not "give her anything" and proclaimed that he is "clean" and not to blame.

Lebron said she had to take Valtrex twice a day but she had to stop taking the medication because she can't afford it.

Since, she has suffered at least five "painful outbreaks of herpes systems over the last six months," the complaint states.

She says the ballplayer "has already been sexually active with several partners," and that she contracted herpes and Chlamydia from Encarnacion "as a result of their physical encounter of unprotected sex."

The player's agent, Paul Kinzer, has not returned a request for comment, but Fox News quoted Kinzer as saying Encarnacion "will not be commenting on this matter."

"He will not allow this to distract from his continued focus of contributing to his team's success," Kinzer reportedly said. "We kindly ask that his privacy be respected."

Encarnacion, a first baseman and designated hitter for the Blue Jays, is the American League leader in RBIs. He used to play for the Cincinnati Reds as a third baseman.

"The defendant knows what he did and he has all the information," Lebron's attorney Robert Hiltzik told Courthouse News Tuesday afternoon.

Lebron seeks at least $1.5 million in compensatory damages and another $10 million in punitive damages for allegations of battery, negligent transmission of STDs, misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty and infliction of emotional distress.

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