In prosecution court documents obtained by The Athletic on Friday, the teenage girl claims that Wander Franco paid her mother 100,000 Dominican pesos ($1,785) per month for seven months in order to maintain a dating relationship. On Friday, a judge granted the star shortstop for the Tampa Bay Rays conditional release.
The records expanded on the contents of the case against 22-year-old Franco, who is charged with minor exploitation and commercial sexual abuse. A quote from an interview the minor provided to a psychologist interviewing her for the investigation is included in the records.
According to the documents, she told the psychologist, “Since I was little, my mother has seen me as a way for her to benefit from both the partners she has had and from my partners.” “And it’s something I detest greatly.”
A judge mandated that Franco appear before the Dominican Public Ministry once a month and provide a financial guarantee of two million Dominican pesos ($34,482 USD), even though he would be released as the case develops. The mother of the youngster, whose identity was kept secret for legal reasons, should be placed under house arrest and not be allowed to leave the country while the criminal case is pending, according to Judge Romaldy Marcelino’s ruling.
The prosecution requested that the court order Franco, who is suspected of kidnapping a girl and sexually abusing her for two days, to provide a financial guarantee of five million Dominican pesos ($86,206 USD).
The minor’s father filed a complaint against the MLB star previous to Franco’s planned 9 a.m. hearing in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, and requested that the judge reject the request for home arrest.
As the victim’s attorney, María Dignora Dilone Cruz, left the courtroom, she remarked, “The father of the minor, through us, concluded in favour of not imposing an impediment to leaving the player but simply the financial guarantee, for which two million pesos were imposed.”
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In 2021, Franco agreed to a $182 million, 11-year contract. When MLB started looking into these claims last summer, they put him on administrative leave.
He said nothing when he appeared in court on Friday morning. After a break, he returned to the courtroom in the afternoon and declared, “Everything will be in God’s hands.” When Franco heard Marcelino’s choice, he said nothing more.
The youngster was in Franco’s custody from the time she was abducted from her house on December 9, 2022, according to the prosecution’s document. He supposedly spent two days having sex with her.
The teenager and Franco dated for four months, the document claims, with the girl’s mother’s approval. The girl’s mother was charged with commercial sexual exploitation. Franco faces a minimum penalty of 20 years and a maximum term of 30 years in prison for the same offence.
