Public Prosecutor’s Office seeks to revoke judicial pardon granted to Wander Franco
The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Puerto Plata plans to file an appeal this Tuesday, at 9:00 a.m., against the judicial decision that favored baseball player Wander Franco. The main objective of the authorities is to annul the judicial pardon granted to the athlete, after he was found guilty of sexual and psychological abuse against a minor.
The hearing will be held before the Court of Appeals of the Judicial Department of Puerto Plata. Representatives of the prosecution maintain that the first-instance judgment should be revoked to impose a criminal sanction that is consistent with the gravity of the facts proven during the judicial process.
Judicial process details
During the trial on the merits, the competent court established the criminal liability of Wander Franco for the violation of article 396, literals b and c, of Law 136-03, which governs the Code for the Protection and Fundamental Rights of Children and Adolescents. Despite the guilty verdict, the court decided to grant a judicial pardon that avoided prison for the player.
In the same judicial file, the victim’s mother was sentenced to 10 years in prison, after being found guilty of the crimes of commercial sexual exploitation and money laundering. It is important to note that this conviction was not challenged by the prosecution.
The appeal filed by prosecutors Ramona Nova Cabrera, Kelmi Ricardo Duncan Torres, Claudio Alberto Cordero Jiménez, José Martínez Montán, and Olga Diná focuses exclusively on reversing the decision that exempted Wander Franco from jail time.
Now, the Court of Appeal will have the responsibility of analyzing the arguments presented by the Public Prosecutor’s Office to determine if a modification to the original sentence is appropriate, seeking to apply a measure proportional to the damage caused as established by Dominican laws.
