A judge decided Thursday that the wife of suspended Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez, who is involved in the racketeering case against him, will stay in jail because she failed to raise the $20,000 required to post bail.
Since June 23, Robin Severance-Lopez has been detained at the Lake County Jail on a conspiracy to commit racketeering charge. She has been charged by prosecutors with transferring money from an illicit gambling enterprise across multiple bank accounts that she and Lopez shared. She entered a not guilty plea to the accusation.
In order to secure her release after her arrest, she was had to provide $400,000 in collateral and an additional 10% to a bondsman, with the condition that she demonstrate the funds’ legitimate sources.
Circuit Judge Brian Welke decided that Severance-Lopez was exempt from paying the extra 10% during a three-hour hearing, but he was not persuaded that all of the funds were clean.
According to her attorney, Michelle Yard, the bond could be paid with two checks from Severance-Lopez’s bank account, the value of her family’s Harmony house, and a check from a relative. She also provided 18 months’ worth of bank statements from many joint accounts as evidence that her personal funds were legitimate, showing that the only deposits were from Lopez’s sheriff’s salary, his veteran’s benefits, and an IRS tax refund.
There was no proof that illicit funds were incorporated into the deposits during that time, according to testimony given by Orange County Sheriff’s Office undercover task force officer Brian Tagler, whose face was not revealed in court. State prosecutors countered that the funds were being added from another source.
According to prosecutor Colleen Moore, this is a typical strategy used to obscure the source of the surplus funds and cause uncertainty. All of the established legitimate revenue has already been used to cover Mrs. Lopez’s and Mr. Lopez’s expenses.
Yard suggested that Severance-Lopez may make up the shortfall by using $57,000 from the sale of a home in 2023. However, Welke postponed the matter until at least next week.
Outside the Lake County Courthouse, Yard told reporters, “We’re back to square one now, and we have to get the statewide prosecutor to either agree she has a clean $20,000 or be back for a hearing again.”
As they walked out of the courtroom, the prosecutors refused to comment.
Prosecutors have charged six individuals in connection with an unlawful gambling operation that started with The Eclipse, an illegal casino in Kissimmee that eventually spread to Lake County. They claim that Lopez and Severance-Lopez participated in the operation, which allegedly brought in $21.6 million, in ministerial capacities.
A 255-page affidavit detailing the scope of the accusations is still sealed while Ying Zhang, one of the co-defendants, is still at large.
Prosecutors claimed that Lopez earned between $600,000 and $700,000 in illicit profits over the years, which he either kept for himself or donated to political campaigns. Prosecutors claim he exploited his position to protect The Eclipse and its employees from legal investigation. His involvement allegedly started in 2019, the year before he was elected Osceola’s first Hispanic sheriff, and lasted during his time at the sheriff’s office.
According to the prosecution, Severance-Lopez was discovered to have transferred funds to other accounts and taken out cash on the day of Lopez’s detention. According to Yard, the funds were utilized to cover expenses and contribute to her husband’s bail. According to Yard, the allegation against Severance-Lopez is based on a single email that contained a W-9 tax form sent to Zhang.
She went on to say that her client never joined a criminal organization. Actually, she split from Lopez in 2019 and filed for divorce in 2023. That case is still pending and was filed in Brevard County.
According to Yard, the case appears to be very weak. The evidence against Robin, in my opinion, is very weak. Nothing indicates that she participated in a plot to engage in racketeering.
