LEE COUNTY, Fla. — Pirates Pitcher Felipe Vazquez is facing new charges, this time from the Pennsylvania State Police, who say they plan to carry out justice to the fullest before extraditing him to Florida.
Those charges include indecent assault, statutory sexual assault and unlawful contact with a minor.
"We have no reason to relinquish Mr. Vazquez from our custody until we are able to work through the charges that we have," said Pennsylvania State Trooper Steve Limoni.
The 28-year-old is accused of sexually assaulting a Southwest Florida girl two years ago when she was 13.
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She lived in Pennsylvania at the time of the assault.
According to the Pennsylvania criminal complaint, Vazquez met the victim through Instagram in 2017. When questioned, he told troopers that he thought the girl was 16 or younger at the time claims he "initially refused to communicate with her due to her age."
"The original contact from what we can from what we can obtain took place from a social media interaction, and it grew from there," said Limoni.
But that complaint shows that he began messaging that young girl despite knowing she was underage. They eventually "exchanged numbers and began communicating via cell phone."
The girl reported to troopers that in August of 2017, Vazquez left his home in Pittsburgh, PA to meet her at her home in Scottsdale, PA, for sex.
"Mr. Vazquez took his vehicle and drove it outside of the victim's residence the victim entered into his vehicle, and that's when the sexual intercourse took place," said Limoni.
That girl eventually moved to Southwest Florida and Vazquez kept in contact with her, sending explicit pictures and videos of himself.
Their text exchanges also included suggestions that the pair would meet up for sex after this year's baseball season was over.
"It's appalling and disgusting and sad that these things happen," said Limoni.
The nature of the discussion and the fact that it crosses state lines leads retired police chief, Walt Zalisko, to believe that these charges could be upgraded.
"It's possible that this case could be kicked up to a federal level because it involves interstate crimes with Pennsylvania and Florida," said Zalisko.
The charges that Vazquez is facing out of Pennsylvania are in addition to the charges he's facing out of the Florida, which led up to his arrest. The charges from that case include one count of computer pornography - solicitation of a child and one count of providing obscene material to minors.
His Florida case came about after the girl's mother found a text exchange between Vazquez and her daughter and alerted police.
"It came to my attention that the victim's mother was the one that initiated this entire course of events [with law enforcement]."
Zalisko says what that girl's mother did is a reminder for all parents.
"Look at their text messages, familiarize yourself with the different apps that are out there where they can hide photographs, text messages, you know?" said Zalisko.
