By Hogla Enecia Pérez

Former Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco will be spared prison time after a judge in the Dominican Republic ruled Monday that, though he sexually abused a minor, he also was a victim.

The judge granted Franco a judicial pardon in a retrial of a case in which he was accused of having monthslong sexual contact with a girl in 2023, when she was 14. The judge said Franco was a victim of extortion and blackmail by the minor’s mother, who received thousands of dollars from Franco.

“God is good, God is good,” Franco said as he left the courthouse and embraced his mother in tears.

Last year, when Franco was sentenced to a two-year suspended prison term on the condition that he not approach minors for sexual purposes, he was also found to be a victim.

Franco is ultimately criminally responsible for sexual and psychological abuse. However, he was granted a full pardon.

The judges of the Puerto Plata Collegiate Court sentenced the victim’s mother to 10 years in prison in a hearing that began at 2:50 p.m. and ended just before 4 p.m.

“Here, the only victim is the minor, and Wander is a collateral victim,” José Ramón Núñez, the presiding judge, said of the decision.

During the hearing, Franco kept his eyes fixed on the courtroom wall, occasionally speaking and laughing with one of his lawyers. Afterward, he could not hold back his tears, alongside his mother, who held him and also cried.

The court determined that the victim was manipulated and did not tell the truth when authorities initially took her statement. Furthermore, findings by two psychologists who evaluated her before her statement corroborated one another, as well as the evidence presented by the Public Ministry’s office.

“The court granted Franco a judicial pardon for the particular circumstances that placed him as a victim from a material standpoint, though not a legal one,” Núñez said.

Franco’s attorney, Teodosio Jáquez, said he will wait for the full text of the verdict, though he considered the ruling to be, in large part, a victory for his client.

“There are things that I won’t be able to tell you. We know about the law, but Major League Baseball knows its regulations,” Jáquez said when asked whether he believed the verdict could lead Franco to return to MLB.

Franco, a one-time All-Star with the Tampa Bay Rays, last played Aug. 12, 2023.

The Public Ministry acknowledged the power to issue a pardon is held within the court, but that defendants were proved guilty. The office will wait on the full decision, including remarks from the judges, before determining whether to file an appeal.

The full decision will be issued June 16.

“He is a guilty party whose sentence was pardoned,” prosecutor José Dolores Martínez Montaño said.

Lawyers for the minor’s mother said they will appeal the ruling because of its lack of a legal basis.

The new court, just like the previous court, found the mother failed to protect her daughter, instead seeking to profit financially through blackmail and extortion of Franco. The judges dismissed charges of prostitution and child sexual exploitation, ruling that her financial gain happened after she became aware of the events.