Former Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco has been found criminally responsible for the sexual and psychological abuse of a minor in the Dominican Republic, but will not serve jail time after a court granted him a judicial pardon on the grounds that he was also a victim of extortion and blackmail by the girl's mother.
Judge José Antonio Núñez of the Collegiate Court in Puerto Plata ruled on May 25, 2026, that Franco, 25, was criminally liable for abusing a 14-year-old girl when he was 21, but exempted him from punishment because the court concluded he had been extorted by the victim's mother, who demanded large sums of money from the player in exchange for permitting the relationship.
The judge described the ruling as a "judicial pardon" that removed the prison penalty but left the finding of criminal responsibility intact, meaning Franco remains officially recorded as having committed sexual and psychological abuse of a minor.
Prosecutors alleged that Franco maintained a months-long sexual relationship with the girl and transferred thousands of dollars to her mother, who has now been sentenced to 10 years in prison for trafficking her daughter and orchestrating the extortion scheme, according to court statements and local reporting.
The court also found that the mother engaged in blackmail, pressuring Franco for additional payments under threat of exposing the relationship, which judges cited as a key factor in granting the pardon that spared him time behind bars.
This latest decision followed an earlier conviction in June 2025, when a Dominican court found Franco guilty of sexual abuse of a minor and imposed a two-year prison term that was suspended on the condition he not contact minors for sexual purposes, effectively allowing him to remain free if he complied with strict behavioral requirements. The new ruling overturns that suspended sentence as part of the judicial pardon.
Franco, an All-Star shortstop who was once considered one of Major League Baseball's brightest young talents with the Rays, has been away from the team since the allegations surfaced and is expected to face further discipline under MLB's Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy now that the criminal proceedings are complete.
