OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – The estranged wife of suspended Osceola County sheriff Marcos Lopez was transferred Friday to the Lake County Jail, a day after she was arrested and charged with providing a false or misleading statement on a bail application.
News 6 was there at the scene on Thursday when she was taken into custody, months after bonding out of jail.
The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said Robin Severance Lopez, 50, was arrested just after 3 p.m. after deputies served a warrant for the Lake County Sheriff’s Office at her St. Cloud home.
[WATCH: Wife of suspended Osceola Sheriff Marcos Lopez arrested again]
Severance Lopez appeared before Judge Jason Nimeth on Saturday morning in Lake County, where she was given no bond for the latest charge and had her bond revoked in the case for which she was on pre-trial release.
“The reason for that is because bond is based on an understanding of trust and ability to believe that an individual who’s been accused of a crime will be able to present themselves in court, abide by any conditions put in place by the court, and make sure that they will allow the system to work as designed and implemented, to allow everyone to have due process and the opportunity to be held,” Nimeth said.
Severance Lopez was arrested in June and was one of at least six charged, including the suspended sheriff, in a multi-million-dollar illegal gambling operation. She is charged with conspiracy to commit racketeering.
She later bonded out of jail in July.
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Jeremy Southern, a neighbor, said on Thursday he saw deputies taking Severance Lopez into custody.
“Anytime you got major police in your neighborhood, it’s a little disruptive and concerning for sure,” he said.
Severance Lopez on Friday is expected to appear before a judge, when officials may decide whether to transfer her to the Lake County Jail, her attorney said.
Ying “Kate” Zhang, Sharon Fedrick, Sheldon Wetherholt and Carol Cote were also charged as a result of the investigation.
Marcos Lopez pleaded not guilty to racketeering charges in June following his arrest and suspension from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The crimes allegedly occurred from August 2019 to at least August 2024, according to court documents.
[WATCH BELOW: Emojis link suspended Osceola Sheriff Marcos Lopez to gambling operation, prosecutors allege]
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said a multi-agency investigation in 2023 “led by Homeland Security Investigations and joined by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement uncovered a criminal organization operating an illegal gambling enterprise throughout Central Florida, particularly in Lake and Osceola counties,” which generated more than $21.6 million in illicit proceeds.
Prosecutors have accused Marcos Lopez of using his influence as sheriff to collect more than $600,000 in illicit payments while operating Eclipse Social Club, a now-shuttered gaming room in Kissimmee that allegedly housed slot machines and other illegal gambling devices.
Court records released in July showed the illegal gambling investigation may have involved as many as five Central Florida gaming rooms.
Michelle Yard, Severance Lopez’s defense attorney, told News 6 on Friday that prosecutors also filed a motion to revoke Severance Lopez’s $400,000 bond, which she posted in July after she was arrested on two counts of racketeering.
Days before she bonded out in July, Severance Lopez went before a judge to try to prove the sources of her funds for bail were legitimate.
Judge Brian Welke ruled that the sources of $380,000 of the bond were clean, but left the defense and prosecution to confer on the final $20,000.
Days later, according to court records, Yard presented a $20,000 check written by a family member of Severance Lopez to make up the difference in the bond. Prosecutors stipulated that Severance Lopez had satisfied the requisites to post bond. She was released July 7.