Police say Vazquez tried to have sex with minor

Pittsburgh Pirates GREENSBURG, closer Felipe Vazquez was being held Wednesday in a Pennsylvania jail on multiple felony charges after allegedly telling investigators he attempted to have sex with an underage girl during a meeting at her house in 2017.

Vazquez is charged with statutory sexual assault, unlawful contact with a minor and corruption of minors, all felonies, and a misdemeanor count of indecent assault of a person under 16 years old.

The charges are related to Vazquez’s alleged encounters with a girl starting in 2017, when she was 13 and living about an hour east of downtown Pittsburgh. Vazquez was expected to be arraigned Wednesday in Westmoreland County, though it was uncertain whether he would attend the hearing in person or do it via video from the Allegheny County Jail. Vazquez has been in the jail since surrendering to authorities Tuesday on a felony warrant issued in Florida stemming from illicit electronic communication with the same girl.

Vazquez began talking to the girl on social media in 2017 before driving to her house in the borough of Scottdale, a state police trooper wrote in court papers.

In an interview with troopers last month, she said she got in Vazquez’s car, he removed her pants and tried to have sex with her, the trooper wrote. On Tuesday, troopers interviewed Vazquez at his residence and wrote that he admitted to driving to the girl’s house and trying to initiate intercourse. Troopers also said Vazquez admitted receiving explicit photos of the girl by cellphone and texting her explicit messages as recently as July.

Pennsylvania authorities began investigating the 28-year-old Vazquez in August after being contacted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The girl’s mother contacted Florida officials after learning of an alleged sexual relationship between Vazquez and a teenage girl living in Lee County.

The arrest warrant from Florida accuses Vazquez of one count of computer pornography/solicitation of a child and one count of providing obscene material to minors. Pennsylvania officials do not plan to pursue extradition until their investigation is completed.

Vazquez was denied bond during a hearing Tuesday on the Florida charges, with the judge saying the Venezuelan-born Vazquez was a flight risk.

According to the criminal complaint, Vazquez initially claimed he couldn’t remember the girl’s name but said that she attempted to reach out to him through social media. Vazquez at first said he refused to communicate with her because she looked too young, police said. They said Vazquez later acknowledged exchanging photos and videos of a sexual nature with the girl and also visiting her house.

Stephen Limani, a state police spokesman, said the girl moved from Pennsylvania to Florida at some point after the interaction with Vazquez began.