Gone in SoFlo
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It took longer than we thought, but it appears that Joel Franco has worn out his welcome at WSVN in Miami.
Back in March, FTVLive told you how Franco WSVN’s Social Media Producer had “joked” about raping women.
On social media, he goes by the name “Official Joel F” and after that story, we did back in March, FTVLive wrote, “I’m thinking Official Joel F, might be officially unemployed.”
Surprisingly, WSVN did not part ways with Franco back then, but they have now.
Franco made headlines when he was arrested Sunday while covering protests in Miami, spurred by the violent death of George Floyd.
The charges were later dropped, but his arrest got plenty of attention — and prompted a number of women to post online of their alleged encounters with him when they were very young. One woman said he was 19 and she was 14 when he brought her to an abandoned building for sex.
The Miami Herald spoke to four women, all of whom wish to remain anonymous, who said he sexually abused, harassed or manipulated them when they were underage.
One of the women said she has made contact with Miami-Dade police’s Special Victims Bureau. She said Franco was legally an adult when the encounters occurred. Franco has not been criminally charged. One of the women said she and Franco were both underage, but for the others their alleged encounters began when he was 17 or 18 years old and continued until his early 20s.
The Herald writes that there is no evidence at this time that Franco used his cachet as a WSVN employee to entice underage girls. The station did not address questions about whether anyone complained directly to managers, or whether disturbing posts about his behavior had come to management’s attention and, if so, when. What vetting the station did before hiring Franco in 2018 is also not known, even though at the time all of his tweets regarding rape and dating minors were still public and not yet deleted.
“I can confirm that Joel no longer works for WSVN,” station spokeswoman Lily Pardo told the Miami Herald on Friday. She declined to say if he resigned or was fired.
Maybe WSVN should have listened to FTVLive back in March.
Just saying…
