By Jill McLaughlin

State authorities arrested the mayor of the central Florida city of Kissimmee on Oct. 21, charging her with grand theft and organized fraud over funds she received from a COVID-19 relief program.

State Attorney General James Uthmeier accused Mayor Jackie Espinosa of illegally granting herself, her husband, and family members $50,000 from a city program she created that was meant to boost small businesses recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Espinosa created, funded, expanded, and promoted the Kissimmee Business Boost 2.0 for small businesses and submitted her applications before anyone else on the first day it opened, which prosecutors alleged violated state law.

“The evidence makes very clear there was intent to engage in this conflict of interest, then she ultimately abused her office to enrich herself,” Uthmeier said during a press conference on Oct. 21.

The mayor and her family own several local businesses, including the Adanse, Real Estate Gallery, Matador Tacos and Tapas, and Empresas Espinosa. At the time of the applications, they also owned Kissimmee Diner.

Espinosa was handcuffed outside her home and taken to the Osceola County Jail, where she remained on the afternoon of Oct. 21, according to jail records.

She is charged with one count of grand theft, a second-degree felony, and one count of organized scheme to defraud, a first-degree felony, according to Uthmeier.

Espinosa maintains her innocence, her lawyer Migdalia Perez told The Epoch Times.

“This case involves a publicly approved grant program administered by city staff, not a secret scheme to steal taxpayer money,” Perez said in an emailed statement.

“The prosecution must establish that the mayor acted with criminal intent. We firmly maintain that she did not.

“There is a fundamental difference between an alleged ethics violation and a criminal offense. The state cannot transform one into the other without proving every element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Espinosa, who was elected as mayor in 2024, plans to challenge the allegations in court, her attorney said.

A state financial audit of the city’s pandemic funding was performed as a routine matter, according to Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, who oversees the state’s financial services.

Auditors noticed irregularities in the city’s Boost program, Ingoglia said, with funds allegedly linked directly and indirectly to the mayor.

“This led my team to look further,” Ingoglia said.

During the investigation, auditors say they were allegedly told that some people in the city office attempted to ask Espinosa whether her applications represented a conflict of interest, but they didn’t get a response, Ingoglia said.

The city manager also allegedly notified her in a text message that the city attorney believed she was prohibited from receiving the grant funds, according to the arrest record.

Espinosa allegedly told the city manager she received the city attorney’s opinion but “felt it was confusing,” the court document stated.

Florida state law does not allow defendants to avoid criminal liability by claiming to not know they were violating the law, according to prosecutors.

The audit found three applications signed by Espinosa and filed before all other applications the day the funds became available, according to Ingoglia.

A couple walks in front of a house in Kissimmee, Fla., on Jan. 11, 2023. Marco Bello/Reuters

Of those, one company, Adanse LLC, which Espinosa legally retains 100 percent ownership of, received $20,000 in relief funds.

Her husband’s company received $15,000 in funds, the audit found.

Ingoglia said he and his team were with law enforcement when they arrested the mayor at her home in Tallahassee on the morning of Oct. 21.

“I am proud of the outstanding work that my auditing team and Criminal Investigations Division did to uncover the alleged misuse of taxpayer dollars and to ensure that Jackie Espinosa’s corruption did not go without recourse,” Ingoglia said in a social media post.

A state ethics probe found that Espinosa violated three ethics rules in July, which prompted the city commission to hold an impeachment vote against her.

The vote stalled after the commission deadlocked last month.

City commissioners also hired a special prosecutor to oversee the ethics complaint.

Espinosa faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted on all charges. A bond amount had not been set.

The city of Kissimmee said that there had been no effects on its operations from the mayor’s ordeal and that regular business has continued.

“The city is prepared to follow the process outlined in the City Charter if a suspension occurs,” city spokesperson Alibeth Suarez told The Epoch Times in an email.

“There are no impacts to city operations, which continue under the leadership of the City Manager and within the City’s Council-Manager form of government.”