One week after suspended Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez was booked into the Lake County Jail, WESH 2 Investigates learned that a multi-agency raid in 2024 shut down the casino at the center of the state’s racketeering case. In the three years before the arrest of Lopez on racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering charges, records from the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office show deputies responded to the Eclipse Social Club on Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway in Kissimmee nearly 50 times. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said Lopez played a role in expanding and shielding the illegal gambling enterprise from law enforcement.“There are photos evidencing the defendant’s direct involvement and also using his influence to potentially obstruct criminal investigation into these businesses in Osceola County,” statewide prosecutor Panagiota Papkos said during Lopez’s first appearance before a judge last Friday.Prosecutors said from June 2022 through August 2024, Lopez and his co-defendants operated Eclipse Social Club as an illegal gambling house.The establishment is also known as the Fusion Social Club, according to court documents.Lopez’s co-defendant Sheldon Wetherholt, who claimed he never met the suspended sheriff, is listed as the manager of the Fusion Social Club, LLC in state business records.“All I did was licenses and leases,” Wetherholt said after he bonded out of jail on Wednesday. “This was not anything that I thought it was anything that it turned out to be.”An Osceola deputy’s incident report from January 2024, obtained by WESH 2 Investigates, said a woman playing slots reported an employee accused her of cheating before shoving her enough that security had to step in. No arrest was made after the deputy could not identify the suspect.An Aug. 27, 2024, incident report said deputies, along with agents from the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigations and Homeland Security Investigations, served a search warrant related to a gambling equipment violation. The raid that shut down the casino also led to the arrest of one of Lopez’s co-defendants from a 2020 warrant out of Orange County.This week, the prosecutor from that organized fraud case filed a new motion to revoke the bond of Sharon Fedrick. The prosecutor wrote she “continued to engage in illegal activities as a fugitive, and attempted to withhold her true identity when confronted by law enforcement.” Fedrick bonded out of the Lake County jail on Monday.Released from the jail on Thursday evening, Jonathan Loper said they are all talking about the suspended sheriff who has been locked up there for a week. “What we were told is he is being kept isolated away from everybody,” Loper said. “No one’s seen him; he’s being kept in isolation.”As for more details about the state’s case against Lopez, the 255-page affidavit for probable cause against him and his co-conspirators is still sealed.While at a news conference Thursday morning in Brevard County, Uthmeier declined to comment on what his office’s press release called a “public corruption scheme.” “Unfortunately, I can’t while that investigation continues to be ongoing,” Uthmeier said.Lopez’s defense attorney, Mary Ibrahim, has entered a written plea of not guilty for his felony racketeering and conspiracy charges.She has also filed a motion to reduce his $1 million bond as the suspended sheriff is now spending an eighth night in jail.
One week after suspended Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez was booked into the Lake County Jail, WESH 2 Investigates learned that a multi-agency raid in 2024 shut down the casino at the center of the state’s racketeering case.
In the three years before the arrest of Lopez on racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering charges, records from the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office show deputies responded to the Eclipse Social Club on Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway in Kissimmee nearly 50 times.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said Lopez played a role in expanding and shielding the illegal gambling enterprise from law enforcement.
“There are photos evidencing the defendant’s direct involvement and also using his influence to potentially obstruct criminal investigation into these businesses in Osceola County,” statewide prosecutor Panagiota Papkos said during Lopez’s first appearance before a judge last Friday.
Prosecutors said from June 2022 through August 2024, Lopez and his co-defendants operated Eclipse Social Club as an illegal gambling house.
The establishment is also known as the Fusion Social Club, according to court documents.
Lopez’s co-defendant Sheldon Wetherholt, who claimed he never met the suspended sheriff, is listed as the manager of the Fusion Social Club, LLC in state business records.
“All I did was licenses and leases,” Wetherholt said after he bonded out of jail on Wednesday. “This was not anything that I thought it was anything that it turned out to be.”
An Osceola deputy’s incident report from January 2024, obtained by WESH 2 Investigates, said a woman playing slots reported an employee accused her of cheating before shoving her enough that security had to step in. No arrest was made after the deputy could not identify the suspect.
An Aug. 27, 2024, incident report said deputies, along with agents from the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigations and Homeland Security Investigations, served a search warrant related to a gambling equipment violation.
The raid that shut down the casino also led to the arrest of one of Lopez’s co-defendants from a 2020 warrant out of Orange County.
This week, the prosecutor from that organized fraud case filed a new motion to revoke the bond of Sharon Fedrick.
The prosecutor wrote she “continued to engage in illegal activities as a fugitive, and attempted to withhold her true identity when confronted by law enforcement.”
Fedrick bonded out of the Lake County jail on Monday.
Released from the jail on Thursday evening, Jonathan Loper said they are all talking about the suspended sheriff who has been locked up there for a week.
“What we were told is he is being kept isolated away from everybody,” Loper said. “No one’s seen him; he’s being kept in isolation.”
As for more details about the state’s case against Lopez, the 255-page affidavit for probable cause against him and his co-conspirators is still sealed.
While at a news conference Thursday morning in Brevard County, Uthmeier declined to comment on what his office’s press release called a “public corruption scheme.”
“Unfortunately, I can’t while that investigation continues to be ongoing,” Uthmeier said.
Lopez’s defense attorney, Mary Ibrahim, has entered a written plea of not guilty for his felony racketeering and conspiracy charges.
She has also filed a motion to reduce his $1 million bond as the suspended sheriff is now spending an eighth night in jail.
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