As of Wednesday morning, suspended Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez remains held in the Lake County Jail after his Thursday, June 5 arrest of felony racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering charges.
His defense team had called for a motion hearing Wednesday at noon to request a reduction in his $1 million bond, but late Tuesday afternoon the hearing was canceled.
His arrest Thursday came as the result of an investigation by state and federal agents, who claim he helped shield an illegal gambling enterprise, run out of a building on West U.S. Highway 192, from law enforcement and “engaged the (illegal) operation for campaign contributions and personal payments,” according to Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said.
“Sheriff Lopez played a multifaceted role in expanding and protecting this illegal enterprise, using his office to shield the enterprise from law enforcement,” Uthmeier said in a press release issued soon after Lopez’s arrest.
He is held in a separate jail wing in protective custody. Lopez’s defense Friday asked for an “affordable” bond of $25,000 per offense, noting it was a white-collar, non-violent crime of money, and asked he be looked at “As a regular individual, not because he has a Sheriff ’s title to be treated different.”
Prosecutors, who asked for a $600,000 bond per count, countered that the crime entailed an “Extreme breach of public trust and misuse of public office, using influence to facilitate the illegal enterprise and obstruct criminal investigation into this business.”
The bond was set at $1 million, and the state was granted a stipulation it requested that the court can inquire about the source of funds used to post bail. Should he be released on bond, he will be subject to GPS monitoring, must surrender his passport and firearms, and can have no contact with four named co-defendants.
Investigators claim Lopez garnered as much as $700,000 from the illegal enterprise, with text messages and messaging app notes dating back to 2019, before he was elected Sheriff in November 2020.
Here are more of the details:
What happened Thursday? That’s a tricky thing to pin down. Lopez drove himself to a Homeland Security Investigative office in Orlando Thursday morning around 9:30 a.m. He was taken into custody there then transported to the Lake County Jail and booked around 11:30. Judge Michael Takac had signed a bench warrant for Lopez’s arrest on Wednesday, June 4.
Among the few Sheriff’s Office staff to speak on the matter, interim Public Information Officer Rich Serrano said there was no notice of what was occurring Thursday morning.
“I did not know until (a TV station) called me to ask about it,” he said.
The department did confirm that Lopez’s ever-present Executive Director Nirva Rodriguez and Community Services Manager Ruben DeJesus were terminated. A source close to the situation said officials brought Rodriguez into a meeting Thursday after Lopez was jailed, and she asked for a lawyer prior to her firing. The source also said Lopez created DeJesus’ position earlier in 2025, and he was just hired weeks ago.
By late in the day on Thursday, graphics on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page were changed— scrubbing any references to Lopez or Rodriguez.
Why Lake County? While not a directly mentioned reason, Orange and Osceola counties make up the 9th Judicial Circuit—meaning an arrest in one of those two counties would likely mean appearing in the Osceola County Courthouse. Lake County is part of the adjoining 5th District.
Who’s in charge now? Gov. Ron DeSantis immediately issued an executive order suspending Lopez Thursday. Christopher A. Blackmon, a longtime Florida Highway Patrol region chief, has been appointed to fill the Sheriff position for the duration of the suspension.
“I am profoundly grateful to be appointed Sheriff by the Governor. The agency is reeling from the arrest of former Sheriff Lopez on his charges,” he said Thursday afternoon. “Everything has been like out of a fire hose, so we are trying to ensure employees that this not a systematic problem, this is a problem with the Sheriff, and he has to answer to his charges.
“To the community, I can assure we’re going to do everything we can to get back your respect and trust in the Sheriff’s Office. It is not an agency-wide problem. It is one person. We have a lot of good men and women here, and I will take care of this county like I have the Florida Highway Patrol. We’re going to protect the community, and we’re going to protect children. This is a shock to the agency, a shock to the system.”
Blackmon, a sworn federal officer, who can carry out immigration cases, said that since the investigation into Lopez is ongoing through FDLE, he could not speak to that matter.
What do prosecutors say happened? According to the Attorney General’s report, an investigation led by the Department of Homeland Security and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement began in 2023 and uncovered a gambling location, with slot-machine type games and a lottery, operating out of a restaurant and hookah bar. It billed itself as the “Eclipse Social Club” just west of Medieval Times, and a video published on its TikTok page that’s made its way around social media showed the machines and tables.
A Mexican restaurant operates next door from the suspected club; employees there did not—or would not—share any knowledge or observations of anything they saw or heard take place there.
Investigators say the organization behind the club was able to generate as much $21.6 million in illicit revenue going back to August 2019—and the state says it has evidence that Lopez was able to skim hundreds of thousands of dollars of that for campaign contributions—he ran for Sheriff in 2020 and 2024.
While the state has a 255-page affidavit detailing more of its findings, officials say they will not release it until all of the co-defendants in the case are arrested. Carol Cote (on a $100,000 bond) and Sharon Fedrick ($300,000) have been arrested and released, and Sheldon Wetherholt was brought into custody early Wednesday morning. Co-conspirator Ying “Kate” Zhang remains at large.
What’s next? Lopez issued written pleas of not guilty to both charges on Friday, and is scheduled for a felony arraignment hearing on June 30. Since he has already submitted pleas, he may not have to attend said hearing—unless told to by the judge—which will lay out future events, such as a status hearing or a trial date.
Serrano confirmed the Sheriff’s Office Basic Citizens Academy, scheduled to begin June 17, is still set to move forward.
