PUERTO LA PLATA, Dominican Republic (AP) — The attorney for Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco said Monday he will ask the court to exonerate his client of all charges in a sexual abuse case involving a girl who was 14 years old at the time of the alleged crimes.
Franco, who was charged in July 2024 and is on supervised release, could face up to 30 years in prison if found guilty.
“He didn’t commit the acts he’s accused of,” Teodosio Jáquez told The Associated Press at the end of the fourth hearing at the Collegiate Court of Puerto Plata, a tourist city in northern Dominican Republic where the girl is from.
“They’re playing their part, because their job is to accuse. However, what they have to do is prove it,” Jáquez said of the witnesses presented by prosecutors.
The prosecutors say the witnesses’ testimony has been vital in proving that Franco sexually abused a minor and paid her mother money for her consent.
“Today, each of these expert witnesses’ statements was vital. They established not only the fact of child sexual abuse, but also that they reinforced commercial sexual exploitation and money laundering,” prosecutor Claudio Cordero said.
Documents that prosecutors presented to the judge last year and were viewed by The Associated Press alleged that Franco, through his mother Yudelka Aybar, transferred 1 million pesos ($17,000) to the mother of the minor on Jan. 5, 2023, to consent to the purported abuse.
The mother of the minor has been charged with money laundering and is under house arrest.
Franco also has been charged with sexual and commercial exploitation against a minor, and human trafficking.
Also, on Sunday he was charged with illegal possession of a handgun, prosecutors said.
Franco was arrested Nov. 10 in San Juan de la Maguana after an altercation in a parking lot. No one was injured during the fight, and the handgun, a semiautomatic Glock 19, was found in Franco’s vehicle, according to a statement from the Dominican Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Franco’s attorney says the player did not have the weapon, that it belongs to someone else.
“This is a celebrity, and some media outlets are perverse in trying to harm that young man,” Jáquez added.
Franco, who turned 24 on March 1, was in his third major league season when his career was halted in August 2023. He agreed to an 11-year, $182 million contract in November 2021. He is currently on Major League Baseball’s restricted list after initially being placed on administrative leave.
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