Former bank employee Martha Vanessa Chevalier and suspended Tampa Bay star shortstop 22-year old Wander Franco, both under arrest in Puerto Plata, met in court on Friday, 5 January 2024 for the hearing regarding accusations of his having sex with the woman’s daughter when she was but 14 years old. Chevalier would leave her bank job after the bonanza of receiving cash from Franco to allow the relationship.
The story broke into the open when the girl herself denounced she was not getting a fair deal from her mother in the relationship with Wander Franco. Diario Libre speculates the girl was bothered because Franco had taken on another young teenage lover.
Diario Libre explains people having sex with minors, while banned by the law in the Dominican Republic, is common and most of the time people in the know and the judiciary look the other way. The difference in this case is the status and fortune of Wander Franco. He has a US$182 million contract of which he has received only US$3.9 million. He stands to lose big.
Having sex with a minor is not new for Franco. The Daily Mail of the United Kingdom named as Rachelly Paulino, 21, Wander Franco’s wife and mother of his two children. The Daily News says Paulino was his childhood sweetheart, and they married in 2021. Their first son was born in 2018. In 2021, a law was passed in the Dominican Republic banning child marriage in any circumstance.
The prosecution in the case had requested bail for RD$5 million, domiciliary arrest and an impediment to for Wander Franco to leave the country. Judge Romaldy Marcelino did not impose a ban on Franco traveling and only required he show every 30th of the month in court. He was authorized to post bail for RD$2 million in the case that is looking into him having sex with a minor.
The mother is accused of exploiting her daughter and money laundering and received an order of domiciliary arrest and a ban on her leaving the country.
In a new development, the father of the 15-year old presented a legal recourse against Wander Franco.
The media speculates if Franco is accused of breach of contract and banned from playing in Major League Baseball, he may still be able to play for other international leagues or even in the Dominican League (Lidom), which operates in close cooperation with MLB.
Lawyer Candido Simon Polanco proposes what he considers would be a solution: That the 15-year old and Franco get married. Dominican Law 1-21 bans child marriage. Nevertheless, Simon Polanco says a clause in the Dominican Constitution still allows for child marriage.
“He (Wander Franco) or any young person who in circumstances like this have the desire to get married, if she wants it too, can get married, and if they get married, there is no criminal case,” explained the lawyer.
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8 January 2024