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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Osceola deputies made multiple visits to casino allegedly controlled by sheriff
Over the three years prior to the arrest of Osceola Sheriff Marcos Lopez for racketeering, his own deputies made numerous visits to the illegal casino at the center of the investigation that ensnared him, reports reviewed by the Orlando Sentinel reveal. The reports released Wednesday by the Osceola County Sheriff's Office are a sample of at least 50 incidents at The Eclipse casino to which deputies responded, and concern reported gunshots, armed disturbances and assaults inside and outside the facility — including an alleged attack in January 2024 by a woman working there. The swirl of activity raises questions about what law enforcement knew about the gambling operation, which Lopez allegedly helped run, and whether that knowledge affected its response. The Eclipse was run out of a commercial building in Kissimmee on West Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway that in the past has been an Indian-American-pizza restaurant and hookah bar. The sheriff's office records also confirm a previously undisclosed, multi-agency raid on the morning of Aug. 27, 2024, which shut down the casino. That corresponds to a timeline of its operations outlined by prosecutors in their charging document against Lopez and his four co-defendants. The details of Lopez' involvement in the casino are shielded behind a 255-page affidavit that remains under seal. The August raid, according to the brief report released to the Sentinel, involved agents of the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations as well as deputy sheriffs. It resulted months later in Lopez's arrest on racketeering charges, along with the arrest so far of three of his four alleged co-conspirators, stemming from operations there as well as an attempted expansion into Lake County. Details of the raid were redacted by the Sheriff's Office from the documents as being part of an active criminal investigation. However, records show it yielded the arrest days later of Sharon Fedrick, when investigators discovered she was a fugitive in an unrelated Orange County case. Fedrick, now one of Lopez' alleged co-conspirators in the latest case, allegedly worked at the club. Altogether, the reports further confirm deputies were at least aware of The Eclipse's existence as a casino since they had visited the business responding to emergency calls well before the fateful search warrant in August that precipitated the raid. One such incident happened in December 2023 when a security guard there reported being attacked by a man who was asked to leave. But that did not result in an arrest as the guard did not have the trespasser's name. During the January 2024 incident, a woman playing slots there told deputies she won several times before an employee accused her of cheating. When approached at the front desk for an apology, the employee shoved her 'enough that security had to step in and separate them.' No arrest was made in that case, either, after a deputy reported the customer 'was unable to advise any further information other than that [employee] spoke with a Dominican accent.' It's not clear if the deputy assigned to that case followed up about the casino. About a month later deputies were called there again, this time for an alleged robbery. They found a man who 'had a swollen and bruised right eye' as well as lacerations on his face. He told deputies he was attacked by 'several unidentified individuals' but that nothing was taken from him. Once again no arrests were made because the victim was 'completely uncooperative' and refused to even tell deputies where the attack took place. The Eclipse was closed down after the Aug. 27 raid. A few days later, on Sept. 3, Fedrick was taken into custody for organized fraud charges filed in 2020 in Orange County. Court records indicate she had been a fugitive for years despite promises to turn herself in — until she was identified by Osceola deputies hours after the raid. During that confrontation she referred to herself using a fake name but deputies caught onto her ruse and jailed her. She was released on a $20,000 bond shortly after. At the time, the judge overseeing her fraud case wasn't aware of the racketeering charges being developed against Fedrick, Lopez and three others: Carol Cote, Sheldon Wetherholt and Ying Zhang. Now the combination of charges is being used in an attempt to return Fedrick to jail, from which she was released on bond earlier this week. 'There are no conditions of release which are reasonably likely to assure the Defendant's appearance at subsequent appearances,' prosecutors argued in a motion filed Tuesday. 'She was aware of her 2020 capias, refused to turn herself in over the course of four years, continued to engage in illegal activities as a fugitive, and attempted to withhold her true identity when confronted by law enforcement.' Cote and Fedrick were arrested Thursday — the same day as Lopez — and Cote has also been released on bond from the Lake County Jail. Wetherholt was taken into custody Tuesday night and handed a $100,000 bond while Lopez remains in jail with a $1 million price tag for his release, with a sought-after bail reduction hearing canceled on Wednesday. Zhang has not been arrested. Lopez, suspended from his post by Gov. Ron DeSantis, has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him while Fedrick proclaimed her innocence Monday night as she left jail.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Suspended Osceola Sheriff Lopez seeks bond reduction after 2 codefendants released from jail
Suspended Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez will seek Wednesday to reduce the $1 million bond on racketeering charges that has kept him in jail nearly a week. A motion filed Tuesday by Lopez's lawyer, Mary Ibrahim, also seeks to modify a condition for his release that his movements be tracked by GPS. On Friday, Ibrahim unsuccessfully tried having Lopez' bond reduced to $50,000 by arguing he shouldn't be treated differently than a regular individual 'just because he has a sheriff's title.' Two women facing trial alongside him with lower bond amounts have already been released. Judge Brian Welke will consider Lopez' motion at a noon hearing. Sharon Fedrick, one of Lopez's alleged co-conspirators, left the Lake County Jail on Monday night after paying a $300,000 bond. Co-defendant Carol Cote paid a $100,000 bond Friday and walked free — the day after all three were arrested. Fedrick was followed by TV news cameras upon release and insisted she was not involved in the alleged scheme. 'Justice will be served,' she said as she walked away. Attempts by the Orlando Sentinel to contact her for further comment have not been successful. Two others implicated in the case, Sheldon Wetherholt and Ying Zhang, have not been arrested. All five face the same state charges — racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering — for what state and federal authorities said was an illegal gambling empire operating out of Osceola and Lake counties. The allegations, for now centered around an illegal casino in Kissimmee called The Eclipse, emerge from a scheme said to have generated more than $21.6 million. It was run out of a commercial building on West Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway that has also been an Indian-American-pizza restaurant and hookah bar. Lopez, 56, earned up to $700,000 in cash payments since 2020 while using his position as sheriff to skirt accountability, according to a 255-page affidavit described in court by prosecutors that remains under seal. He was suspended by Gov. Ron DeSantis while his case proceeds and replaced by interim Sheriff Christopher Blackmon, the Florida Highway Patrol's Central Florida regional chief. Despite facing the same charges as other defendants, Lopez, elected in 2020 as Osceola County's first Hispanic sheriff, was ordered to pay the heftiest bond. It comes with a court-ordered stipulation the payment must be investigated to ensure funds don't come from illegal sources — a condition not required of prosecutors for Cote or Fedrick, according to court records. Defendants typically can obtain a bond by paying a bonding company 10% of the stated value in the court order. Lopez and his codefendants are scheduled to be arraigned June 30.
