A former Major League Baseball all-star player has been deported to Venezuela after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a girl beginning when she was 13 years old.
Felipe Vazquez played pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 2016 to 2019, but he was arrested in Sept. 2019 over the sexual relationship he had with a girl in Scottsdale. In 2021, he was convicted by a jury of 10 counts of sexual abuse of children, two counts of unlawful contact with a minor, one count of statutory sexual assault, one count of indecent assault of someone under 16, and one count of corruption of a minor.
Vasquez testified in his trial that he did not know the girl was a minor and claimed that he believed she was an adult woman that he wanted to have a relationship with. He claimed that he had even asked for her to show him identification that she was of legal age.
The accused admitted to falsely telling him she was 17 years old but denied showing him a fake identification card.
Prosecutors presented evidence that Vasquez had exchanged explicit videos and photographs with the victim for two years afterward.
“I thought we put on a very strong defense, obviously the jury disagreed,” said defense attorney Gary Gerson to KDKA-TV at the time of his client’s conviction.
“I’m not sure exactly what their assessment of the case was, but it appears to me that they may have concluded that Felipe had a mistaken belief but it was not reasonable. And therefore they rejected our mistaken age defense.”
Immigration ordered that Vasquez should be removed from the U.S., and he waived his right of appeal. On December 1, he was deported to Venezuela.
Vasquez also played for the Washington Nationals.
Here’s more about the conviction:
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