Wander Franco trial will resume next week, prosecution winds down case

John Romano, Tampa Bay Times on Jun 9, 2025

Published in Baseball

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TAMPA, Fla. — The prosecution completed its questioning of witnesses and presentation of evidence in Wander Franco’s sexual abuse trial on Monday. The case will resume June 17 when the government will make closing statements, according to various reports from the Dominican Republic.

The Rays shortstop is facing charges of sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of a minor and human trafficking stemming from a relationship with a 14-year-old girl in 2022 when Franco was 21 and had just completed his second season in Tampa Bay. The former All-Star could face up to 30 years if convicted on all of the charges.

Franco’s attorney told the Associated Press on Monday that he will ask the court to exonerate his client after hearing the prosecution’s case.

“He didn’t commit the acts he’s accused of,” Teodosio Jáquez told the Associated Press after Monday’s hearing at the Collegiate Court of Puerto Plata, a tourist city in northern Dominican Republic.

“They’re playing their part, because their job is to accuse. However, what they have to do is prove it," Jáquez said.

Numerous witnesses were questioned in court behind closed doors Monday morning to protect the girl from public scrutiny, according to Dominican journalist Luis Tomas Rae Barett and the Diario Libre newspaper.

The prosecution has alleged that Franco had a brief, physical relationship with the minor and paid her mother $1 million pesos ($17,000 in U.S. currency) to facilitate the affair. The girl’s mother is also on trial.

“Today, each of these expert witnesses’ statements was vital,” said prosecutor Claudio Cordero, according to the AP. “They established not only the fact of child sexual abuse, but also that they reinforced commercial sexual exploitation and money laundering.”

The trial, originally scheduled to begin in December, got underway early last week and has included more than a dozen witnesses. Barett reported on Monday that two forensic psychologists were on the witness list.

Franco also is facing charges of illegal firearm possession in a separate case stemming from an incident in another part of the country last November. Franco’s lawyers have maintained that the ballplayer was unaware that his uncle’s gun was in the trunk of a Mercedes that he was driving.

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