Court sentences Wander Franco to three years suspended imprisonment for sexual abuse of minor in Puerto Plata
A court revoked the judicial pardon granted to baseball player Wander Franco and sentenced him to three years suspended imprisonment for sexual abuse of a minor.
Court revokes judicial pardon for Wander Franco and imposes three-year suspended sentence
An appeals court revoked the judicial pardon that had favoured Dominican baseball player Wander Franco and imposed a sentence of three years suspended imprisonment for sexual abuse of a minor, according to a ruling reported by acento.com.do.
The decision modifies the sentence from the Collegiate Court of Puerto Plata, which in May 2026 had declared Franco criminally responsible but granted him judicial pardon, exempting him from serving a prison sentence.
The case reached this level after the Public Prosecutor's Office appealed that sentence and requested that the benefit be revoked, also seeking a sentence of five years imprisonment. The Court granted the request to revoke the pardon, although it set a sentence of three years, lower than the five years sought by the prosecution.
Along with the sentence, the court imposed a fine on Franco equivalent to three minimum wages and ordered the seizure of RD$ 2.1 million in favour of the Dominican State.
Conditions of suspension
The suspension of the sentence is subject to the fulfilment of several conditions. Franco must submit to supervision as determined by the judge of sentence execution, refrain from visiting places frequented by the victim, and avoid any contact or communication with her. Likewise, he must refrain from maintaining any sexual relationship with the young woman while she remains a minor.
The court warned that failure to comply with these conditions could result in revocation of the suspension, requiring the baseball player to serve the sentence at the San Felipe Correction and Rehabilitation Centre, located in Puerto Plata.
Victim's mother maintains ten-year sentence
In the same ruling, the Court upheld the ten-year prison sentence against Martha Vanessa Chevalier, mother of the adolescent, who had also appealed the sentence. Chevalier was sentenced for her involvement in crimes related to the sexual exploitation of her daughter, in accordance with the charges presented by the Public Prosecutor's Office.
The court rejected the appeals filed by both defendants.
The case had previously gone through another stage in which a sentence was annulled and a new trial was ordered. In that more recent process, Franco was again declared criminally responsible before receiving the judicial pardon that has now been revoked.
Source: Google News DO — Crime