DENTON, Texas — The judge declared a mistrial Friday in the sexual abuse trial of former Texas Rangers pitcher John Wetteland after a Denton County jury said they were deadlocked.
A relative accused Wetteland of forcing him to perform a sex act on him three times between 2004 and 2006, beginning when the child was 4 years old. The jury of nine men and three women deliberated for nearly eight hours.
Jurors sent at least three notes about stalled deliberations prompting Wetteland’s lawyers to ask for a mistrial. State District Judge Lee Ann Breading initially denied the requests before granting it just after 5 p.m.
It was not immediately clear whether Denton County prosecutors intended to try Wetteland, 56, again. Wetteland rushed out of the courtroom without commenting and his attorney, Derek Adame, declined to comment. The accuser, now 22 and living out of state, was not in the courtroom when the judge declared the mistrial.
One of the notes said the jurors were split 10 to 2. The note did not say whether the majority of jurors were in favor of a conviction or acquittal. Breading gave them stern instructions around 2 p.m. to keep deliberating. The third note, sent about 4:40 p.m., said they were “deadlocked and unwilling to budge.”
The Rangers Hall of Famer is charged with three counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child. If he is tried again and convicted, he faces up to life in prison. The accuser said the abuse happened in the master bathroom shower of Wetteland’s Bartonville home, about 10 miles south of Denton.
Lawyers pleaded their cases to the jury for more than an hour Friday.
Wetteland’s defense team painted the relative as a theatrical, “spoiled brat” who was manipulated to levy false accusations against Wetteland by a man lawyers have described as his stepfather. The stepfather has no biological or legal relationship to the relative.
Prosecutor Rachel Nichols said the defense defamed the relative over three days of testimony. Nichols said the relative had “nothing to gain” by coming forward with abuse allegations. “It cost him almost everything,” she said, including his family, his childhood and his privacy.
“He’s not this evil kid,” she said. “He didn’t want the world to know.”
The Dallas Morning News typically does not identify those alleging sexual assault. The News is not identifying family members to protect his identity.
Adame said the relative was “weaponized” by his stepfather, a man who Adame and witnesses have described as toxic and aggressive. The stepfather did not testify. Adame said the stepfather has always wanted to “destroy John.”
Wetteland, who testified in his defense Thursday, said he was the victim of a lie orchestrated by the stepfather. His mother testified that he has never recanted the accusations of sexual abuse.
The man testified Tuesday he didn’t want to involve law enforcement. Instead, he wrote a letter, intended for only immediate family, disclosing the abuse. The man’s mother encouraged him to write the letter as a means of closure.
An investigation began after the relative’s high school learned of the abuse allegations in January 2019, according to testimony. District software flagged a letter written in Google Docs linked to the relative’s school-issued email.
Adame told jurors the relative was forced to write the letter and would have been punished if he didn’t. Wetteland testified he believed the letter was either written by the stepfather or he told the relative about what to write.
Prosecutor Lindsey Sheguit told jurors the relative and his stepfather no longer have a relationship. Wetteland’s attorney Derek Adame indicated in his questioning of a sibling of the accuser that the stepfather no longer believes the allegations. But it was unclear why and he did not elaborate.
On the witness stand, Wetteland described a Christian, all-American home life and said he quit pro-baseball and coaching to spend more time with his family. But prosecutors said a back injury forced him out of the Major Leagues.
Outside the presence of the jury Thursday, prosecutors said, Wetteland suffered addictions to sex, alcohol, drugs and prescription pills. Breading did not allow the testimony before jurors.
Sheguit called the defense’s narrative an “elaborate plan.”
“John Wetteland knew this day was coming,” she told jurors, “because there are some sins you can’t wash away.”
Wetteland spent 12 years in the major leagues, pitching for four teams. He was the 1996 World Series MVP with the New York Yankees and then signed with the Rangers.
He retired after the 2000 season, and his 150 saves with the Rangers are still the most in franchise history.
Wetteland was elected to the Rangers Hall of Fame in 2005 and held a coaching and front office position with the team in the early 2000s. He was a bullpen coach for several other teams. He also coached and taught Bible classes at Argyle’s Liberty Christian School in 2007 and 2008.
Though Wetteland is in the Rangers’ Hall of Fame, the club no longer has official ties with him.
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