OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Suspended Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez walked out of the Lake County Jail with nothing to say on the allegations he was part of a large gambling enterprise.
Channel 9 was the first station to break the news of the ousted sheriff’s arrest three weeks ago Thursday. Our cameras were there as he stepped outside of the jail for the first time Thursday evening.
His attorney is huddled around him in a crowd of reporters, not saying anything. Channel 9 talked to a criminal defense attorney not connected to the case in any way about what happens from here. His defense team is now working on how they’ll defend the racketeering charges against him.
“They’re going to say, of course, it wasn’t an illegal operation, I presume, and to the extent it has some illegal touch to it, he wasn’t aware of it and wasn’t partaking in it,” said Mark O’Mara.
Lopez walked out with an ankle monitor, one of the conditions the judge ordered on his release, in addition to turning in his passport and all weapons within 72 hours.
“I will tell you right now, this judge is not going to give him much leeway, so he better comply with each and every one of those restrictions, those pretrial release conditions or bond conditions, because he does not want to go back in jail and put his defense team in that type of a position,” said O’Mara.
Lopez’s bail comes just two days after his estranged wife was given a $400,000 bond for her alleged role in the gambling scheme. She has the same hold he had when it comes to proving the money used to post bail comes from legal funds. O’Mara says it’s not a good look for the suspended sheriff to leave her locked up.
“She’s still the mother of his child, and I will tell you the optics of it are not good that the wife is still sitting in jail and he’s out. You also have to wonder how upset she may get that he got himself out and not her out and how that may work against him long term,” said O’Mara.
It’s a high-profile case that O’Mara says will last up to a year. It should have been considered during Lopez’s grand exit.
“What we saw was this sort of almost media frenzy, right? And it just looks like you’re running away. The defense team needs to be aware that there is media presence here and not involving yourself in it in a metered, well thought out way, may have some negative blowback,” said O’Mara.
O’Mara says it’s going to take time for the defense to go through the discovery or what the state has found to charge Lopez. That’s what will start now that he’s out.
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