This week marks one year since suspended Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez was arrested and charged in connection with an alleged illegal gambling operation that prosecutors say generated more than $21.6 million in illicit funds. Of the roughly half-dozen people named in the case, Lopez is now the only defendant still preparing for trial. His estranged wife, Robin Severance Lopez, and the operation’s alleged owner, Krishna Deokaran, both entered pleas to money laundering charges last fall, while three other co-defendants accepted plea deals in October.

Attorney Jonathan Rose told Spectrum News that it is typical to see co-defendants resolve their cases as trial preparation ramps up, and that the most consequential step ahead will be deposing the cooperating co-defendants. As Rose explained, those depositions aim not only to learn what the witnesses will say but to surface inconsistencies and conflicts among their accounts and the physical evidence. With Lopez now the “last man standing,” Rose suggested the case could still take as much as another year to conclude.

Meanwhile, Christopher Blackmon, appointed as the new Osceola County sheriff after Lopez’s arrest, said his first year has focused on a forensic audit of the office’s finances, expanded patrol coverage in underserved areas such as Poinciana, and stepped-up work on internet crimes against children. No trial date has been set for Lopez, who is due back in court on June 16.

Watch the video on Spectrum News 13 — Attorney Jonathan Rose is featured.

Summarized from reporting by Jordan Mead, Spectrum News 13.