TAVARES, Fla. — Suspended Osceola County Sheriff Marcos R. Lopez was capable of submit a $1 million bond and safe his launch from the Lake County Jail Thursday.
Lopez had been locked up on racketeering expenses tied to an alleged $21 million unlawful playing operation since his arrest on June 5.
One of many circumstances of his present bond is that any cash he makes use of can’t be affiliated with criminal activity or his alleged involvement within the playing operation.
Orlando-based legal professional Jonathan Rose mentioned this requirement is typical in circumstances the place the legitimacy of sure funds may very well be underneath query.
“(This) usually occurs in drug circumstances, fraud circumstances, issues like that, the place they’re ordinarily somebody who would have belongings that won’t have been legitimately gained,” Rose mentioned. “The courts don’t need folks to profit in idea from with the ability to pay bond, get out of jail by advantage of the crime they supposedly dedicated.”
Because it stands, circumstances for Lopez’s launch embrace posting bond, surrendering his passport and firearms and carrying a GPS monitor.
It’s a course of that typically takes some time relying on how lengthy it takes for these gathering the funds to get it collectively, however within the case of Lopez, the method appeared to pull out.
An Orlando protection legal professional shares how precisely that course of works.
“That one who posted the bond needed to present or give some banks statements exhibiting the place the cash got here from, whether or not it’s revenue tax, or no matter property they’ve and whatnot. They needed to present that to the state. The state had to take a look at it, do their homework and inform the decide, ‘hey we agree with it,’ and now the decide indicators the order and so they can use these funds to submit the bond,” Prison Protection Legal professional Jose Rivas mentioned.
Of the 5 defendants named within the case, legislation enforcement nonetheless hasn’t taken Ying Zhang or Sheldon Wetherholt into custody. Co-defendants Sharon Fedrick and Carol Cote have posted their bond.
