Lawyer for suspended Pirate Felipe Vazquez wants bail, statement to police suppressed

A new lawyer for suspended Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Felipe Vazquez wants a Westmoreland County judge to set a bond that would allow the former All-Star to leave jail as he awaits trial on child sex charges.

Vazquez, 28, was charged last summer with statutory sexual assault and other offenses in connection with allegations that in 2017 he had improper sexual contact with a 13-year-old girl formerly of Scottdale. He was charged in November with additional counts of possession of child pornography and unlawful contact with a minor related to text messages sent between Vazquez and the girl. He has been held without bail at the county jail since his arrest.

Defense attorney Gary Gerson of Pittsburgh, whom Vazquez hired this month, claims his client has no available money to flee the region, is ready to surrender his expired Venezuelan passport and green card and is not a threat to the alleged victim.

Gerson wrote in court documents filed Wednesday that Vazquez’s trial may not begin until late this year and that, because he maintains his innocence, he has no reason to abscond.

“Alleged acts in this case were initiated by the alleged victim,” Gerson wrote. “… The defendant took reasonable steps to ascertain the age of the alleged victim after being contacted and was presented with identification by the alleged victim that showed she was over the age of consent.”

Vazquez, according to Gerson, would agree to live in Westmoreland County on house arrest until his trial.

According to published reports, Vazquez in 2018 signed a four-year contract extension with the Pirates that guaranteed him $22 million in salary through 2021 and the potential to earn up to $41 million for two additional years.

The pitcher’s former lawyers last year argued that Vazquez could pay $1 million bail when they attempted to have a district judge set bond. Prosecutors said Vazquez, because of his ties to Venezuela and his financial resources, would be a risk to flee the country.

“There is a misconception by the commonwealth that is not founded in fact that defendant has a lot of liquidity due to his status as a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates and therefore could flee the jurisdiction. This is not true. The defendant has no significant funds,” Gerson wrote.

Vazquez’s trial had been tentatively scheduled to begin in March, but the defense said it wants to delay the case to allow newly assigned Common Pleas Judge Scott Mears time to rule on a series of pretrial issues, including one filed Wednesday seeking to bar from evidence incriminating statements Vazquez made to police last summer.

Gerson contends Vazquez, who is a native of Venezuela, came to the U.S. at the age of 16, has the equivalent of a sixth-grade education, speaks Spanish as his primary language and does not speak English well enough to waive his constitutional rights to not talk with investigators.

“Defendant was subjected to both physical and psychological coercion by the said troopers and other law enforcement officers,” Gerson claimed in challenging the propriety of the police interrogation.

In addition to the Westmoreland case, Vazquez was charged with similar sex counts by Florida police involving allegations made by the same girl after she moved from Pennsylvania. Common Pleas Judge Rita Hathaway in November rejected an extradition bid for Vazquez to be sent to Florida to answer those allegations.

Mears has not scheduled hearings to address Vazquez’s bail request or his motion to suppress his statement to police.