Kissimmee's Democrat Mayor Helped Create a COVID Relief Fund, Then Took $50,000 From It. Florida Just Arrested Her

Jackie Espinosa, the mayor of Kissimmee, a central Florida city just south of Orlando, was arrested Wednesday morning and charged with two felonies. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier says she pushed to create a city COVID relief fund for small businesses, then had her family's own businesses apply for $50,000 from it the day it opened, and kept the money after she was told it was prohibited, according to his office.

"Public officials do not get to write the rules and then write themselves a check," Uthmeier said. "The mayor used her position to push a COVID relief grant program, then took $50,000 from it for her family's businesses after being warned it was prohibited. Florida taxpayers funded that money to help small businesses recover, not to enrich the mayor who controlled it."

She faces one count of grand theft of $20,000 to $100,000, a second-degree felony, and one count of organized scheme to defraud of $50,000 or more, a first-degree felony, the attorney general's office said. Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia said she could face up to 30 years in prison, Spectrum News 13 reported. Kissimmee's mayor's race is officially nonpartisan, but Espinosa ran for the Osceola County Commission as a Democrat in 2022, the Osceola News-Gazette reported.

Same day the fund opened

Espinosa took office in November 2024. Soon after, she advocated for and voted on the creation and expansion of the city's Business Boost 2.0 program, which was paid for with federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars and meant to give one-time help to small businesses hurt by the pandemic, the attorney general's office said. When applications opened in September 2025, Espinosa and immediate family members filed for three businesses they owned or controlled that same day.

Think of a referee who helps write the rulebook, then suits up for one of the teams. According to the arrest affidavit, the three awards were $20,000 to Adanse LLC, $15,000 to Kissimmee Diner Inc., which runs Matador Tacos & Tapas, and $15,000 to The Real Estate Gallery LLC, WFTV reported. They were part of the first $255,000 the program handed out. The money hit Espinosa family accounts on Nov. 7, 2025.

Ingoglia said the full picture is bigger than $50,000. "Seven businesses located in properties owned or managed by Jackie Espinosa family received a combined total of $90,000 in grant funds," he said. "$50,000 went to Espinosa businesses, while $40,000 went to tenants in Espinosa's businesses, so $50,000 directly, $40,000 indirectly," Spectrum News 13 reported.

The warnings she ignored

A city employee saw the problem before a dime went out. On Sept. 18, 2025, Yolanda Claudio, who was reviewing applications, emailed the city's economic development director asking him to get the city attorney's sign-off. She questioned whether the mayor's participation created a conflict of interest and stopped working on the files until she got an answer. The director approved the applications anyway, saying nothing in the program's rules barred the mayor and that checking with the city attorney was her job, the affidavit says, according to WFTV.

On Dec. 5, 2025, the city attorney told Espinosa that taking the grants was a prohibited conflict of interest. She was advised to return the money, but she "declined to do so, stated she would fight any complaint, and took no corrective action," the attorney general's office said. The city manager also urged her to return the money, and she argued she should qualify because she was a local business owner, WFTV reported. Asked about it in May, she told the Orlando Sentinel, "Three of my 13 businesses got a grant, yes, of our family-owned businesses," TheBlaze reported.

Saved once by a 2-2 vote

This summer, a court-appointed special prosecutor, Mayanne Downs, found probable cause to pursue impeachment on three ethics allegations. Her report said Espinosa "took public monies without disclosing her personal interests" and failed to return the money after being "advised that taking it was improper." When Espinosa argued that staff never warned her, Downs wrote that "the oath of office is warning enough," Spectrum News 13 reported. In August, the city commission split 2-2 on moving to an impeachment trial, one vote short, so it died.

In September, the Florida Commission on Ethics found probable cause too. Espinosa then agreed to a $2,000 fine and a public censure, saying she was "ready to put this chapter behind us," TheBlaze reported, citing WESH-TV. A $2,000 fine on $50,000 is the kind of math that only works for the person keeping the money. The state wasn't finished with her.

"She tried her hardest to be both"

The criminal case came out of an audit by Ingoglia's office, which flagged irregularities in the grants and sent in his criminal investigators, working with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. "It is called public service for a reason, not self-service," Ingoglia said, per the attorney general's office. Richard Mantei, the special counsel who leads the attorney general's public integrity unit, put the defense in one line: "Her defense to being a criminal is that she's just unethical. It is unusual that I run into something like that, but I'm here to tell you that yes, in fact, you can, and she tried her hardest to be both," FOX 35 reported.

Her lawyer, Migdalia Perez, filed a not-guilty plea and said the case "involves a publicly approved grant program administered by City staff, not a secret scheme to steal taxpayer money," WFTV reported. Espinosa was expected to spend Wednesday night in the Osceola County jail, with her first court appearance set for Thursday morning, FOX 35 reported. Vice Mayor Angela Eady will handle mayoral duties at meetings and events, and the city has opened its own internal investigation of the program, Spectrum News 13 reported.

Uthmeier says this is not the last case. "Since we established our public integrity unit, we've worked quickly to hold corrupt officials accountable — more to come," he said, per his office. COVID relief was sold as a lifeline for the corner diner. In Kissimmee, prosecutors say, the mayor made sure her own diner was first in line.