Kissimmee Mayor Jackie Espinosa Arrested Over $50,000 Covid Grants She Helped Approve
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Oct 21
Kissimmee Mayor Jackie Espinosa Arrested Over $50,000 Covid Grants She Helped Approve
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Oct 21
Summary
Jackie Espinosa, 58, was arrested Wednesday outside her Kissimmee home and held without bond on grand theft and organized fraud charges.
$50,000 in Covid-19 grant money allegedly went to Espinosa and her family through a city small-business relief program she helped create and approve.
Osceola County jail records list a second-degree felony theft charge covering $20,000 to $100,000 and an organized fraud charge tied to property worth $50,000 or more.
Migdalia Perez, Espinosa’s lawyer, said the mayor maintains her innocence and argued the state must prove a criminal offense, not merely an ethics violation.
Espinosa has served as mayor of the Central Florida city of more than 84,000 residents since November 2024.