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23-year-old Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco was formally charged with sexual abuse, sexual exploitation against a minor, and human trafficking in the Dominican Republic on Tuesday.
Franco was placed on administrative leave last August by Major League Baseball after accusations surfaced of him having a relationship with a 14-year-old girl. That leave currently runs through July 14th. During that time he has and will continue to be paid his $182 million contract.
Wander Franco had been previously arrested in January after failing to show up for a December meeting with the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Children and Adolescents in Santo Domingo, but was released a week later. He is, however, still required to check in with authorities in the Dominican Republic on the 30th of every month.
Earlier charges against Franco, including money laundering and commercial sexual exploitation, had been previously dismissed, despite authorities accusing him at the time of “taking the minor away from her home in Puerto Plata in December 2022 and having a four-month relationship with her with consent from the girl’s mother.”
Following his first arrest in January, ESPN obtained a nearly 600 page document that was presented to a judge at a hearing. Those files included transcripts of interviews with the girl and her relatives and messages between Franco and the girl.
The indictment filed against Wander Franco this week by Puerto Plata District Office Prosecutor Kelmin Duncan also includes Martha Chevalier, the mother of the 14-year-old girl he allegedly molested.
Chevalier was charged with commercial sexual exploitation, human trafficking and money laundering, and reportedly remains under house arrest.
Prosecutors claim Franco paid the girl’s mother thousands of dollars and gifted her a car in exchange for consenting to the relationship, which lasted four months.
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Wander Franco, who signed a $3.8 million contract with Tampa Bay when he was just 16 and was named an All-Star at the age of 22, has not played for the Rays since August 12, 2023
Major League Baseball’s investigation into the matter, and any punishment that will be levied against Wander Franco, is not expected to be concluded until after the conclusion of his criminal case.