Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez will plead no contest in a non-criminal case and pay a $250 fine for posting a crime scene photo of Madeline Soto’s body.
She is the Kissimmee 13-year-old who went missing five days prior to her body being found on March 1 behind a fence in a field off Hickory Tree Road south of St. Cloud.
In exchange for Lopez’s plea and the fine, according to an agreed final judgment filed in Osceola County court on Monday, a hearing scheduled for Friday at 8:30 a.m. would be canceled. Court records show the payment was made on Wednesday.
“The tendered payment of $250 along with this written plea of no contest will serve as the full and final disposition of this case and this matter shall be closed,” the order reads.
On March 2, the morning after Soto’s body was discovered, a group of images from a Sheriff's Office's community event was posted to its Instagram account. Included in that was what the agency called an "investigative photograph" of a body wearing a green shirt and blue jeans. As it was believed to be Soto, the photo, which was available to see for a short time that morning, caused community uproar.
State Attorney Andrew Bain asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate, and on July 15 his office filed the non-criminal case against Lopez. It alleged Lopez “failed to comply with Florida public records laws making a photograph that depicts the killer of a minor confidential and exempt from public disclosure,” and that he, “Did publish a photograph depicting the killing of a minor, to wit: Madeline Soto.”
Requests for comment from Lopez via phone and email Tuesday morning have as of yet not been returned or acknowledged.
Stephan Sterns, 38, remains in jail, charged with the Soto’s murder along with multiple counts of sexual battery as a result of photos found on his phone and Google drive depicting sex acts he reportedly committed on Soto.
