(24 Jun 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic – 23 June 2025
1. Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco sitting in courtroom with his lawyer Teodosio Jáquez Encarnación
2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) José Martínez, Prosecutor:
“Once declared criminally responsible, the court must sentence him to five years in prison for the criminal offense of sexual abuse of a minor.”
3. Court in session
4. UPSOUND (Spanish) Irina Ventura, attorney for Wander Franco:
++ PARTIALLY COVERED BY SHOT 5 ++
"I would like to have a friendly discussion with the prosecution so they can explain how the complicity aligns with the criminal type of the association of wrongdoers. I want to see if Wander is an accomplice of the mother of the minor or if he is a material author of the crime of conspiracy among wrongdoers. I would like to understand in theory the nature of the crime. How we will explain this?"
5. Franco leaving the courtroom
STORYLINE:
Dominican prosecutors requested on Monday that suspended Tampa Bay Rays player Wander Franco, who faces charges of sexual abuse involving a girl who was 14 years old at the time of the alleged crimes, be sentenced to five years in prison.
The prosecutors said in court there is sufficient evidence to prove Franco had a relationship with the minor for four months and that he transferred large sums of money to the minor’s mother to consent to the illegal relationship.
The prosecutors also requested the minor’s mother be sentenced to 10 years in prison, arguing she sexually trafficked her daughter.
In a previous hearing, prosecutors described the evidence presented as “convincing” and “compelling.”
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 purported abuse.
Franco 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.
AP video by Martin Adames.
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