Shortstop for the Tampa Bay Rays In the Dominican Republic, Wander Franco has been formally accused of sexual assault and exploitation of a juvenile.
Prosecutor Kelmin Duncan of the Puerto Plata District Office and Nairobi Viloria, the attorney general’s office spokesperson, confirmed to ESPN’s Juan Recio that they filed the formal complaint against Franco on Tuesday, four days after the original deadline passed on July 5.
Since a complaint was made against him on July 10, 2023, about alleged sexual contacts with a 14-year-old girl, Franco has been the subject of an investigation.
On January 3, Dominican prosecutors charged Franco with commercial sexual exploitation and money laundering; the girl’s mother, who was 14 at the time of the alleged interaction in December 2022, was also charged with the same offense. Franco was instead charged with a lesser crime of sexual and psychological abuse by a Dominican Republic judge six days later following additional examination of the material.
Prosecutors provided the information they had gathered from their investigation into Franco in a roughly 600-page document that ESPN was able to obtain and deliver to the judge during a hearing in January. Transcripts of the girl’s interviews with her family members and messages exchanged between Franco and the girl are included in the file.
The Associated Press was informed by Franco’s American attorney, Jay Reisinger, that he was unable to comment at this time since Franco had not been formally notified of any allegations.
Franco’s administrative vacation was recently extended by Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association to July 14. This procedural step was made to gain more time while the Dominican authorities worked on the criminal investigation.
MLB initiated an independent inquiry against Franco, which is anticipated to be concluded subsequent to the resolution of his criminal case.
Ninety-nine games into his major league career, Franco, 23, decided to extend his contract in November 2021 for $182 million over 11 years.
