Dominican Court Orders Retrial for Wander Franco

An appeals court in the Dominican Republic ordered a new trial on Tuesday for Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco, overturning his earlier conviction for sexually abusing a minor and granting the same to the victim's mother.

The ruling, issued in Puerto Plata, came after Franco's attorneys appealed his two-year suspended sentence from June, seeking to suspend the conviction and overturn the sentencing. Prosecutors had pushed for a five-year prison term. The court cited procedural flaws, omissions and other issues in the original proceedings, directing a new panel of judges to handle the retrial. Neither Franco nor the mother attended the hearing.

Franco's attorney, Teodosio Jáquez, described the decision as a recognition of significant errors. "The court understood that there were many flaws, many omissions, many issues, and decided to send the case to a new trial," Jáquez said. Prosecutor José Martínez Montan, the district attorney for Puerto Plata province, expressed confidence in the initial evidence. "In a new trial, the procedures will be reevaluated," he said. "We won the case in the first trial, and we expect the same in the new trial."