{"id":708674,"date":"2026-05-25T21:21:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T21:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/708674\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T21:21:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T21:21:15","slug":"tampa-bay-rays-ss-wander-franco-found-criminally-responsible-in-sexual-abuse-of-a-minor-case-in-the-dominican-republic-but-will-avoid-prison-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/708674\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Rays SS Wander Franco found criminally responsible in sexual abuse of a minor case in the Dominican Republic, but will avoid prison time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco has again been found criminally responsible of sexual abuse of a minor in the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n

Franco was found criminally responsible for the sexual and psychological abuse against a minor on Monday, according to Dominican journalist Juan Arturo Recio<\/a> and the Tampa Bay Times\u2019 Marc Topkin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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But Franco was also granted a judicial pardon on Monday, as the judge ruled he was both a defendant and a victim in the case.\u00a0Franco was determined to be the victim of extortion and blackmail by the minor\u2019s mother, according to The Associated Press<\/a>. That means that Franco will not serve any prison time and is \u201cexempted from punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Franco was initially found guilty<\/a> of sexual abuse of a minor last summer. He was accused of having a four-month relationship with a 14-year-old girl and transferring thousands of dollars to her mother to consent to the illegal relationship.<\/p>\n

He received a two-year suspended prison sentence for the illegal relationship, which allowed him to remain free as long as he met certain conditions. Prosecutors had been seeking a five-year sentence. Franco also dealt with other legal issues since returning to the Dominican Republic, including accusations from other girls<\/a> and being sent to a mental health facility at his family\u2019s urging<\/a> in September.<\/p>\n

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The minor\u2019s mother was also initially convicted on sex trafficking charges, and was hit with a 10-year prison sentence. But both Franco and the minor\u2019s mother were granted new trials<\/a> in December.\u00a0The minor\u2019s mother was sentenced to 10 years in prison for money laundering on Monday, which matches the sentence she received in the first trial.<\/p>\n

Franco signed an 11-year, $182 million deal with the Rays in 2022, which set a franchise record at the time. He was positioned as the cornerstone of the franchise back then, and was quickly becoming one of the younger stars of Major League Baseball. But the allegations came out against him the following year, and he was placed on administrative leave and then the restricted list.<\/p>\n

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Franco\u2019s MLB career is now on hold indefinitely. A sex crimes conviction against a minor would be a significant obstacle for Franco in securing a work visa to enter the United States again, too. The judicial pardon that Franco received on Monday applies to the punishment, not the conviction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware of today\u2019s verdict in the Wander Franco trial and will conclude our investigation at the appropriate time,\u201d Major League Baseball said in a statement, via the Tampa Bay Times.<\/p>\n

If Franco is unable to get a visa and report to the team, the Rays would not be obligated to pay the remaining $160 million on his deal. Franco could face discipline from the league once its investigation wraps up, too.<\/p>\n

Franco and the minor\u2019s mother are due in court next on June 16 for the full judgement reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco has again been found criminally responsible of sexual abuse of a minor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,14552,4,27207,297,1637,2550,68,26276,2551,2549,27209,17803],"class_list":["post-708674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-rays","tag-baseball","tag-marc-topkin","tag-mlb","tag-prison-sentence","tag-rays","tag-sexual-abuse","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tampa-bay-times","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabayrays","tag-the-dominican-republic","tag-wander-franco"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116637314838608278","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}