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Pittsburgh Pirates Pitcher Accused Of Sexually Assaulting 13-Year-Old Girl Is Held Without Bond
Felipe Vazquez appeared for a brief hearing Wednesday, alongside an interpreter, before being led back to jail where he is being held amid accusations that he carried on inappropriate relationship with a teen girl.
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Felipe Vazquez will be held in jail without bond, a judge ruled Wednesday after the relief pitcher was accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl outside her home in his Mercedes.
Vazquez is facing charges of statutory sexual assault, unlawful contact, corruption of minors and indecent assault in Westmoreland County.
He’s also facing charges of giving obscene material to a minor and soliciting a child for unlawful sexual conduct in Florida, after authorities say he continued communicating with the young girl and sent her explicit photos and videos after she moved with her family to Florida, according to The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Vazquez was arraigned on the child sex allegations on Wednesday and was ordered held without bond after Vazquez’s attorneys opted not to challenge the prosecutor’s request.
“We are not pursuing bond at this junction,” his attorney Michael Comer told the judge.
The 28-year-old Venezuelan appeared briefly at the hearing, accompanied by an interpreter, before being led back to the Westmoreland County Prison.
He declined to make any comments to reporters as he was led away, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
Vazquez has been accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in August 2017 in the driveway of her home. According to authorities, the girl—who is now 16—told police she had gotten into his Mercedes which was parked at the end of the driveway at her Scottdale home.
She said Vazquez removed his pants and tried to have sex with her, but was unable to fully insert his penis into her vagina and stopped trying after about a minute, according to the criminal complaint obtained by the paper.
He later allegedly told authorities the incident had been “sex but not really.”
Vazquez reportedly told police the girl initially reached out to him on Instagram but he initially refused to communicate with her because he believed she was under the age of 16. However, eventually the pair exchanged sexually explicit photos and videos with one another, the complaint said.
As recently as July, Vazquez reportedly sent the teen a message telling her he wanted to have sex with her, police said.
The relationship was discovered after the girl’s mother discovered the communication between the pair after the family had moved to Florida—prompting an investigation that began in Florida in August and then continued in Pennsylvania after the alleged sexual contact in 2017 was discovered.
The pitcher was taken into custody by the Pennsylvania State Police last week, according to The Associated Press.
