By Kevin Draper and
September 17, 2019
(Justin K. Allen/Getty Images)
Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Felipe Vazquez was arrested Tuesday morning in Pittsburgh and charged with three felonies, including statutory sexual assault and unlawful contact with a minor, among other charges in Pennsylvania and Florida.
The authorities began investigating Vazquez, 28, last month after they “obtained information that Vazquez had a reported sexual relationship with a 13-year-old female victim” in Lee County, Fla., according to a news release from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Vazquez was charged in Florida with computer pornography offenses, including solicitation of a child.
The girl is now 15 and had still been communicating with Vazquez by text message, according to the law enforcement department, which said in the release that Vazquez had sent text messages to the girl “suggesting they would meet for sex after his baseball season was over.”
Vazquez appeared in court in Pittsburgh on Tuesday afternoon via video link from a jail in Allegheny County, Pa., and was denied bail, with the judge saying she believed he was a flight risk, according to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Law enforcement agents in Pennsylvania and Florida obtained a warrant, and officials searched Vazquez’s residence in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, taking “several electronic devices” to examine, which could lead to more charges.
Later Tuesday, the authorities in Westmoreland County, Pa., charged Vazquez with the three felony counts, as well as a misdemeanor count of indecent assault of a person under 16. Vazquez was taken to jail in Allegheny County, and the authorities in Florida said he faced extradition to Lee County. It was not immediately clear whether the charges in Pennsylvania were related to Vazquez and the girl in Florida.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Pirates president, Frank Coonelly, said Major League Baseball’s commissioner’s office would put Vazquez on administrative leave, meaning he would be ineligible to play but still receive pay. “We take this matter, and these charges in particular, extremely seriously,” Coonelly said in the statement. Vazquez’s agent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Vazquez, a Venezuelan who made his major league debut in 2015, has been one of baseball’s best relievers since joining the Pirates in a 2016 trade with the Washington Nationals, earning 86 saves for Pittsburgh and two All-Star selections.
Vazquez signed a four-year, $22 million contract extension early in 2018, with options that could keep him with the Pirates through 2023. He was known as Felipe Rivero when he signed the deal but soon legally changed his surname to Vazquez so he could have the same surname as his half-sister, Prescilla, who is also his agent. Vazquez reportedly lives with his half-sister in the off-season in Florida.
Last week, Vazquez initiated a clubhouse fight with another reliever, Kyle Crick, which led to season-ending surgery on Crick’s right index finger. Vazquez was fined $10,000 for the episode, which started when he objected to the music playing from Crick’s locker, The Post-Gazette reported.
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