TAVARES, Fla. — The estranged wife of Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez will return to court Thursday afternoon in hopes of finally bailing out of jail.
Marcos Lopez bailed out last Thursday, but Robin Severance-Lopez has remained in the Lake County jail for nine days.
The bail will only be granted if the judge believes there’s enough evidence that the money she plans to use is not tied to the alleged illegal gambling enterprise. Either the judge or the prosecutor is required to sign off on that before she can be released.
“I can see that the statewide prosecutor would have some concerns about the legitimacy of those documents,” said Jonathan Rose, a criminal defense attorney who is not involved in this case.
Rose said the judge will likely want to see years worth of financial documents to prove Severance-Lopez’s bail money is not tied to the alleged gambling operation.
Her attorney, Michelle Yard, said she turned over months worth of financial documents.
Yard believes the records are sufficient to bail Severance-Lopez out of jail, but prosecutors do not.
Rose said using bank accounts may slow down the bail process, especially if they chose to use her bank account.
"If you don’t have something where it’s just easily verifiable, like you’re going to liquidate some sort of investment account, that’s easy. If you’re trying to show through bank accounts the amount of money in there over time comes from legitimate sources, that not always easy," he said.
Authorities have alleged Severance-Lopez moved $600,000 to $700,000 from co-conspirators to her estranged husband.
On top of that, in a financial affidavit Severance-Lopez filed in her divorce proceeding against, she only reported a monthly income of $1,300.
"Her bank account isn’t going to show a great deal of verifiable funds given that," said Rose.
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