ORLANDO, Fla. – 4 months after Osceola County Sheriff Lopez posted a crime scene photo on Instagram that allegedly confirmed the physique of 13-year-old Madeline Soto, the state legal professional is elevating questions on inconsistent statements made by the sheriff throughout an investigation into the confidential picture.
State Lawyer Andrew Bain has threatened to put the sheriff on his agency’s so-called “Brady List” which alerts felony defendants to details about witnesses whose credibility could also be referred to as into query.
Soto’s decomposing physique was present in a wooded space close to St. Cloud on March 1, 4 days after she failed to indicate up at college and was reported lacking.
The Osceola County Sheriff’s Workplace previously acknowledged that an “investigative photo” had been “accidentally” posted on Lopez’s Instagram account hours after the teenager’s physique was situated.
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In a July 8 letter obtained by Information 6, Bain factors out that Lopez informed Kissimmee’s police chief that the photograph was printed by mistake, and in addition made a public apology.
Nonetheless, Bain says his workplace is having problem squaring that with remarks Lopez made in a radio interview the place he claimed the image didn’t truly present the physique.
In accordance with the letter, Lopez informed WDBO: “As to the photograph, there was an apology issued however it wasn’t truly the physique, it was an space of curiosity the place there was a physique discovered. Nobody ever got here out straight and mentioned it was the sufferer.”
Then, 5 days later, Bain says Lopez carried out a sworn interview with a Florida Division of Regulation Enforcement investigator, the place Lopez informed the investigator that he had had the photographs despatched to his cellphone so he may “evaluate the clothes on the physique to what the sufferer was final seen sporting.”
“There may be due to this fact proof you knew there was a physique that is perhaps the sufferer on March 1, 2024, and positively knew the physique was the deceased sufferer by the point of your interview on April 1, 2024,” Bain wrote.
Bain mentioned his workplace was now required to formally notify Lopez, beneath the Brady Identification System of the “‘existence of data [including] . . . all sustained findings in personnel data for untruthfulness’ and ‘every other info the SAO9 learns and believes impacts the credibility and/or truthfulness of a recurring state witness.’”
If it’s decided that Lopez was being “untruthful” in regards to the image that grew to become public, he can be added to the state legal professional’s workplace’s Brady record. Meaning prosecutors must let defendants learn about something in a witness’ background that may have an effect on the credibility of their testimony.
“You’re seemingly conscious that you just qualify not solely as a recurring witness but in addition a witness within the underlying case given your entrance into a criminal offense scene,” Bain wrote.
Bain mentioned although he was asking the sheriff’s workplace to research, Lopez may flip the investigation over to FDLE, since he’s the topic. As soon as the investigation is finished, the state legal professional’s workplace will determine whether or not Lopez will likely be added to the Brady list.
Lopez was additionally cited for violating Florida’s public file legal guidelines for the photograph disclosure, which carries a superb of as much as $500.
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