Details emerge in Dominican Republic’s investigation into Wander Franco
WHEN EVERYTHING WAS falling apart for Wander Franco, the incandescent star shortstop for the Tampa Bay Rays, prosecutors in the Dominican Republic allege he opened WhatsApp on his phone and sent a message to the teenage girl with whom he carried on a monthslong relationship and paid to remain quiet about it.
“My girl,” Franco allegedly wrote in Spanish. “If my team realizes this, it could cause problems for me. It is a rule for all teams that we cannot talk to minors, and yet I took the risk and I loved it.”
After a nearly six-month investigation, Franco was arrested on New Year’s Day for not appearing in court to answer a summons from a governmental child-welfare unit in his native Dominican Republic. Prosecutors later accused him of having sex with the 14-year-old girl when he was 21 years old and presented charges of commercial sexual exploitation and money laundering. He could face up to 20 years in prison and is reckoning with the possibility of his MLB career ending at age 22.
In a nearly 600-page document presented to the judge at a hearing this month and obtained by ESPN, prosecutors shared the evidence they have found in their investigation into Franco, underway since a formal complaint was first filed on July 10, 2023. The file includes transcripts of interviews with the girl and her relatives, messages between Franco and the girl, and more.
“There are serious questions regarding the authenticity of particular documents and references contained in the prosecutor’s confidential file, which was inappropriately disclosed to certain media outlets,” said Franco’s United States-based attorney, Jay Reisinger, in a statement to ESPN. “We are in consultation with Mr. Franco’s legal counsel in the Dominican Republic, and we intend to take the necessary legal measures in response.”
A spokesperson for the Puerto Plata Prosecutor’s Office said the office “declines to make any comment regarding an open investigation, as is the case with Wander Franco.”
For all of its salaciousness, Franco’s circumstances are rather straightforward: An All-Star with Hall of Fame aspirations and a nine-figure contract has allegedly committed a crime that could land him in prison for years. The story of the girl, unnamed by ESPN because these are sexual exploitation charges, includes alleged abuse not just from Franco but also her mother, who herself faces charges of money laundering based on gifts and payments from Franco.
In the document, the girl detailed a toxic relationship with her mother, who the girl said “see[s] me as an object to make money.” During an interview with a forensic psychologist, the girl said her mother drinks heavily and “gets violent.” By the time the complaint was filed against Franco, the girl had moved out of her home, away from the woman who raised her.
“I don’t see her as a mother,” the girl told the psychologist. “A mother doesn’t do what she has done with me.”
THE GIRL, now 15 years old, met Franco online, according to prosecutors. According to the documents, he “took her from her home” in Puerto Plata, on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic, on Dec. 9, 2022, for two days. During that time, they had sex twice, prosecutors said, and started a relationship that lasted four months.
A cousin who grew up with the girl’s mother later told authorities that Franco would send a helicopter to Montellano, a town near Puerto Plata, to pick up the girl and bring her to see him. Other times, she said, Franco’s driver would ferry the girl from Puerto Plata to Franco’s hometown of Bani, a 3½-hour car ride. One time, the cousin said, the mother paid a taxi driver 16,000 Dominican pesos ($275) so the girl could meet with Franco in Bani.
Franco, the girl told the psychologist, was not shy about being seen in public with her. They went to “various social events,” she said, and she relied on his money “to be formal and groomed and not repeat clothes.” When her mother found out about the relationship, the girl said, “she suddenly started telling him that I needed things” and asked for 100,000 pesos a month.
“Since I was little, my mother has seen me as a way for her to benefit from both the partners she has had and my partners and it is something that I really dislike,” the girl said. “The way she did it with her partners was by telling them that I needed money for my education, the purchase of school supplies or some need related to me.”
For most of the final two months of their relationship last year, Franco was in spring training with the Rays. After the season began, the relationship strained, and she started seeing someone else. After she told Franco, they talked over WhatsApp, according to the file presented to prosecutors.
Franco wrote: “I would like you to forget everything you have learned to raise you my way.”
She responded: “And what is your way? Without love? Without respect?”
Franco replied: “There was more to it but you’re just a girl and you don’t know how to get along with me, that’s why you failed, but I’ll give you only one chance, you must be only for me. Don’t look at anyone, I know you’ve been with someone else, but no one will know how to use you the way I want.”
According to the documents, the girl said she was upset by the conversation and contacted a reporter, after which her mother filed the official complaint to prosecutors in the Dominican Republic. “I feel sorry because I didn’t want to hurt [Franco],” the girl said. “He was good to me.” About a month later, allegations of the relationship leaked on social media on Aug. 14, prompting Major League Baseball to investigate Franco. The league placed him on administrative leave for the remainder of the 2023 season.
Meanwhile, the girl’s relationship with her mother worsened. Another relative interviewed by authorities told prosecutors that the girl wrote a letter saying she was going to kill herself, alarming family members. She moved out of her home, prompting her mother to file a kidnapping complaint, according to sources. The mother alleged the girl once pulled a knife on her, but the girl said both sides of her family “know that she is the one who has always attacked me because she has alcohol problems and when she drinks and you don’t do what she wants, she gets violent.”
At a relative’s birthday party in August, the girl saw her mother, who she said was drunk, according to the documents. The girl said her mother threw a rock at her and called her a Spanish word for “c—s—er.” That same day, the cousin said, a person driving a Hyundai Sonata rolled by, recording the house. The mother called the cousin two minutes later and warned that people associated with Franco “were going to kill everyone here in the house,” said the cousin — who later realized that the car belonged to the girl’s mother.
In July and August, Franco had given the girl 2.7 million pesos (about $46,000) to support herself until college. With it, she bought an iPhone, an iPad, her school uniform, supplies and personal items. Her cousin helped her open a bank account to deposit the remainder, around $37,500.
Franco had furnished the girl’s mother with even more money. The mother’s receipt of monthly 100,000-peso payments from Franco — about $1,700 — and a new car (a 2023 Suzuki Swift) were discovered by prosecutors during a September raid. Authorities also found $68,500 in American dollars and another 800,000 pesos ($13,700) in her home.
The investigation continued, and in late December, police sought to question Franco, who had returned to the Dominican Republic in December after being placed on leave. They looked for him at his home and his mother’s, then at his uncle’s. Police told Franco’s wife he needed to appear at the prosecutor’s office on Dec. 28. He didn’t show. He did the same Dec. 29. When he finally met with authorities on Jan. 1, he was booked and remained in jail through Jan. 8, when he paid bail after the prosecution’s hearing a few days earlier for coercive measures, a pretrial procedure in which officials try to prevent the accused from fleeing, destroying evidence or intimidating accusers and witnesses.
AFTER THE ALLEGATIONS surfaced in August, the girl posted on social media: “Look, I’m going to tell you in confidence why I do all this. He used me and as you saw in the messages, he bribed me a lot and they took me out of the school I was in because of him, he has damaged my life and he has not even tried to fix it.”
She then deleted all her accounts.
Franco denied the allegations on Instagram Live that day and hasn’t spoken officially since; his only comments were during a break at the hearing, telling reporters, “It’s all in God’s hands.” Whether he is found guilty, he faces a potentially lengthy suspension from MLB, after which securing a visa to allow him to play in MLB could be more complicated, according to legal sources familiar with the matter.
Both the Rays and the league declined to comment for this story, citing the ongoing investigations.
It’s a dramatic fall for a player around whom the Rays thought they would build their franchise. Franco dropped out of school at 12 years old to pursue a baseball career full time. A switch-hitting shortstop with power and speed, and the nephew of former big leaguers Erick and Willy Aybar, he fetched a $3.8 million bonus in 2017 to sign with the Rays and debuted with them in 2021, just after he turned 20.
The Rays gave him an 11-year, $182 million extension that fall, just 70 games into his major league career. But his true breakout came in the 2023 season, when he was named an All-Star for the first time.
Whether Franco can make a case to collect the $174 million Tampa Bay owes him for the final nine years of the contract remains unresolved. If Franco can’t play because he is imprisoned, the Rays could get out of the deal arguing clause 7.(b)(1) of the league’s uniform player contract, which states teams “may terminate this contract … if the Player shall at any time fail, refuse or neglect to conform his personal conduct to the standards of good citizenship.”
Until a trial — and that won’t come for months, as prosecutors have up to six months to investigate — Franco is free to leave the country, as long as he checks in with police once a month. Officials in the Dominican Republic are divided on how to approach Franco’s prosecution, according to sources. Some would prefer charges of statutory rape to the counts of sexual exploitation and money laundering. The judge in the case, Romaldy Marcelino, suggested Franco instead face counts of sexual and psychological abuse, suggesting the prosecution is being tougher on Franco because he is an MLB player. Sexual abuse convictions carry a two- to five-year prison sentence.
In the meantime, the girl awaits resolution.
“I just wanted to talk,” she told the psychologist, “because I want all of this to end.”
For teams that aren’t playing in their conference championship games, this is it — the final chance to make a lasting impression on the College Football Playoff selection committee.
For some contenders, like Ole Miss, their regular-season résumé is now complete, and what happens in the fifth ranking on Tuesday night should be a strong indicator of their final placement on Selection Day. Others, like Miami, are banking on hope and help — and most importantly, one more win. It all began with the Egg Bowl on Friday — a game that not only kept Ole Miss in the playoff, but also technically in the SEC race.
That’s right — this thing is far from over, so check back after each game to see how the results will impact the playoff as the day unfolds.
Texas 27, Texas A&M 17
Rivalry Week presented its first shakeup of the top four when No. 16 Texas beat No. 3 Texas A&M — but it might not be all that jarring in the fifth ranking. The Aggies will likely drop to the 4-6 range behind Georgia. The Bulldogs have better wins including a 35-10 drubbing of … Texas. Georgia also has a better loss (to No. 10 Alabama), and has now clinched a spot in the SEC title game. The question is just how far Texas A&M will fall now that it has joined No. 5 Texas Tech, No. 6 Oregon and No. 7 Ole Miss in the one-loss club. The Aggies entered the weekend with a noticeable edge over Texas Tech in both strength of record (23 to 56) and strength of schedule (1 to 10). It’s possible the committee only drops the Aggies one spot, flipping them with Georgia, which means they’d still be in position to earn a first-round bye as the No. 4 seed. There would be a strong debate, though, about whether the Aggies, Texas Tech or Oregon, the latter which has impressed the committee lately by ranking in the top five in both offensive and defensive efficiency, deserves the highest seeding. The Aggies’ problem now is that they’d have to finish in the top four as an at-large team because they just got knocked out of the SEC title game.
While Texas now has arguably the best win in the country, it probably won’t be enough to catapult it into the top-10 as a three-loss team. Even with some upsets above them, it’s unlikely Texas would get higher than No. 12.
Indiana 56, Purdue 3
Indiana clinched a spot in the Big Ten championship game with its win against rival Purdue, locking in a CFP bid and beefing up its chances at keeping a first-round bye on Selection Day. The Hoosiers, who have been the committee’s No. 2 team in each of the first four rankings, still have a chance of grabbing the No. 1 spot in Tuesday’s ranking if Ohio State loses to Michigan. If the Buckeyes lose and Oregon wins Indiana will face Oregon in the Big Ten title game. If Michigan wins and Oregon loses the Hoosiers will face Michigan for the conference title.
The question is whether IU can maintain a top-four seed and a first-round bye as the Big Ten runner-up. If Indiana lost the title game, the committee would consider where their opponent was ranked and how close the game was. The Hoosiers would also be compared with other top one-loss teams, but playing a ranked opponent in the conference championship game — win or lose — would boost IU’s record strength by the committee’s metric.
Georgia 16, Georgia Tech 9
Georgia should keep its place as the committee’s top one-loss team following its win against rival Georgia Tech. Georgia’s Oct. 18 win against Ole Miss, along with their win at Tennessee and drubbing of Texas, impressed the committee. The Bulldogs’ consistency on offense and defense has also played well with the committee. Georgia’s first-round bye would only be in question at this point if it finishes as a two-loss SEC runner-up.
Barring an unusual combination of ACC results, No. 23 Georgia Tech will be out of the playoff at 9-3. The only way the Yellow Jackets can extend their playoff hope is through the ACC championship game. They entered the weekend with a 1.5% chance of making the game, according to ESPN Analytics.
Ole Miss 38, Mississippi State 19
With its win against rival Mississippi State on Friday, Ole Miss likely locked up a playoff spot and remains in a strong position to host a first-round home game. If Alabama loses to Auburn on Saturday, Ole Miss will clinch a spot in the SEC championship game. Even if it doesn’t, though, the one-loss Rebels should still be a CFP lock.
As for the uncertainty still looming around coach Lane Kiffin, if Ole Miss turns to an interim head coach for the playoff, the selection committee could consider that. CFP protocol states the group will consider “other relevant factors such as unavailability of key players and coaches that may have affected a team’s performance during the season or likely will affect its postseason performance.” Ole Miss won’t miss the playoff because Kiffin left for another job, but it could get dinged a spot or two if the committee thinks the team won’t be the same without him.
Utah 31, Kansas 21
No. 13 Utah punctuated its résumé with a win against 5-7 Kansas, but it’s still unlikely to reach the playoff without multiple upsets of teams above it — especially after just being leapfrogged by No. 12 Miami in the latest CFP ranking. Even with a win, to reach the Big 12 championship game, Utah still needs Texas Tech to lose and for both BYU and Arizona State to win. The Utes’ best hope to reach the CFP is still as an at-large team.
Getting that bid isn’t inconceivable if a combination of two-loss teams above them lose. If Oklahoma, Alabama and Miami lose, it would be difficult for any of them to stay in the top 12 as three-loss teams. Utah would need at least two of them to lose to move into the top 10, which is where it would need to be to actually be seeded in the field. The No. 11 and No. 12 teams this year will be excluded during the seeding process to make room for the fourth- and fifth-highest ranked conference champions.
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Mark Schlabach
STARKVILLE, Miss. — Lane Kiffin said he’ll decide Saturday whether he will return as Ole Miss‘ coach in 2026 or take another job, presumably at LSU, which is trying to poach him from its SEC rival with a lucrative contract offer that will make him one of the highest-paid coaches in college football.
Kiffin, while speaking to reporters after the No. 7 Rebels’ 38-19 victory at Mississippi State in Friday’s Egg Bowl at Davis Wade Stadium, would only say that he’ll have to make a decision one way or the other, after Ole Miss athletics director Keith Carter and chancellor Glenn Boyce said they needed an answer by Saturday.
“I feel like I’ve got to,” Kiffin said.
When Kiffin was asked if he had made up his mind about where he’ll be coaching next season, he said, “Yeah, I haven’t. Maybe that surprises you. But, you know, I’ve got to do some praying and figure this thing out.”
Kiffin said he planned to attend his son’s high school playoff game in Tupelo, Mississippi, on Friday night. Knox Kiffin is Oxford High’s starting quarterback.
“Tonight, I’m going to go be a dad and watch a more important game to me,” Kiffin said.
Kiffin wasn’t sure what time he would make a decision Saturday.
“There’s a lot [that goes] into it,” Kiffin said. “It’s a hard decision. You guys have them all the time. You’ve got to make decisions about jobs you take and where you move, and we get paid a lot so I understand we’re under a lot of spotlight and scrutiny.”
Kiffin said he regretted not being able to speak to his father, Monte Kiffin, while trying to make one of the most important decisions of his career. The longtime NFL defensive coordinator died in July 2024. He was 84.
Kiffin, 50, has sought the advice of former Alabama coach Nick Saban and Las Vegas Raiders coach Pete Carroll, his former boss at USC, the past few weeks.
ESPN reported earlier Friday that Florida, which was also courting Kiffin, is now focused on other candidates in its search because the Gators believe he’s more interested in other opportunities.
Carter and Boyce met with Kiffin a week ago in Oxford, Mississippi, and the sides came to an understanding that Kiffin would make up his mind the day after the Egg Bowl.
If the Egg Bowl was Kiffin’s last game as Ole Miss’ coach, it was a fitting end to one of the most successful tenures in school history.
As speculation about Kiffin’s future continued to swirl over the past two weeks, the Rebels rolled past their rivals for their fifth win in the past six meetings in the heated series. The Rebels had 545 yards of offense, as quarterback Trinidad Chambliss passed for 359 yards with four touchdowns.
The Rebels (11-1, 7-1 SEC) all but secured a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff. They’ll have to wait another day to find out whether they’ll play in next week’s SEC championship game in Atlanta.
No. 3 Texas A&M would have to fall at No. 16 Texas on Friday night (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC) and No. 10 Alabama would have to lose at Auburn in Saturday’s Iron Bowl (7:30 p.m. ET/ABC) for the Rebels to clinch a spot in the SEC championship game.
And, of course, Ole Miss fans will be waiting Saturday to find out which coaches will be on the sideline for the CFP, which might begin with a first-round game at home on Dec. 19 or 20.
If Kiffin decides to leave for LSU, former New York Giants coach Joe Judge would likely serve as the Rebels’ interim coach in the CFP, sources told ESPN.
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