Kissimmee Mayor Jackie Espinosa was arrested on grand theft and fraud charges after state officials said family-tied businesses took $50,000 in city COVID relief grants she oversaw.
ABC News reported that Espinosa was booked Wednesday morning into the Osceola County Jail and charged with grand theft, a second-degree felony, and organized scheme to defraud, a first-degree felony.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia say the case centers on Kissimmee’s Business Boost 2.0 COVID-19 small business relief program and $50,000 in grants that allegedly went to three businesses owned or controlled by Espinosa or members of her immediate family.
Those businesses were described as a dance production studio, a diner, and a real estate company. Prosecutors say she and family members applied on the day applications opened in September 2025.
Ingoglia’s office audited COVID-related grant programs and tied the findings to the arrest warrant’s account of the $50,000.
During a Wednesday press briefing, Ingoglia did not say much about the alleged conflict.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia said:
"This is the local government equivalent of insider congressional stock trading,"
Uthmeier framed the charges as deliberate abuse of office, not a paperwork mix-up.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said:
"The evidence makes very clear that there was intent to engage in this conflict of interest that ultimately abused her office to enrich herself,"
He went further on how the process allegedly worked for the mayor’s circle.
Uthmeier also said:
"Mayor Espinosa demonstrated an intent to create, streamline and simplify, reduce oversight of and more easily enable a process whereby herself and immediate family could apply for and receive city funds to which she was not entitled."
If convicted as charged, Espinosa faces up to 30 years in prison. Bond was set at $70,000 after her initial court appearance Thursday, when a not guilty plea was entered on her behalf. Jail records listed her as Eva Jacqulyn Espinosa. She is 58 and has served as mayor since November 2024; her term runs through 2028.
Espinosa’s attorney, Migdalia Perez, told ABC News the mayor maintains her innocence and will fight the allegations in court. Perez cast the matter as a public grant program run by city staff, not a hidden theft plot.
Attorney Migdalia Perez said:
"This case involves a publicly approved grant program administered by City staff, not a secret scheme to steal taxpayer money,"
She argued prosecutors must prove criminal intent and that an ethics dispute is not automatically a felony.
Perez also said the state cannot turn an alleged ethics problem into a crime without proving every element beyond a reasonable doubt, and that the defense “firmly maintain[s]” Espinosa did not act with criminal intent.
Kissimmee officials said an arrested mayor stays in office until suspension, removal, or resignation. In Espinosa’s absence, Vice Mayor Angela Eady will handle mayoral duties at City Commission meetings and ceremonial events.
City manager Mike Steigerwald authorized an internal investigation of Business Boost 2.0 after the arrest. The city said that review will examine how the program was designed, administered, and overseen, and whether grant policies were followed and whether those rules were adequate.
Taxpayers funded a relief program sold as help for local businesses after a national emergency. State auditors and prosecutors now say the mayor’s own family-linked firms were among the early applicants for that pot of money, while she held the city’s top job.
The warrant account, the CFO audit, and the attorney general’s charging theory put a simple question on the table: who the program was built to serve, and who actually got served first.
Public office is a trust, not a family discount window on other people’s money, and voters have every right to demand answers when that line gets crossed.
