A former high-ranking Democratic legislator in New Mexico has been convicted of dozens of federal charges related to a scheme to divert money from public schools to a company owned by a friend in exchange for kickbacks. Jurors reached the verdict Friday following a trial.
The former legislator, Sheryl Williams Stapleton, 69, faces up to 20 years in federal prison. She was indicted in March 2024 on more than three dozen counts, including bribery, mail fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to defraud the federal government. These federal charges are in addition to money laundering, racketeering, and other charges filed by state prosecutors in 2021, with a trial in that case scheduled for October.
Williams Stapleton, a former state House majority leader and an administrator with Albuquerque Public Schools, was first elected in 1994. She resigned from the House and was fired by the school district in summer 2021, shortly after search warrants were executed at her home.
Prosecutors alleged that Albuquerque Public Schools paid more than $3 million to Robotics Management Learning Systems LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based company, for vocational education programs. Williams Stapleton, in her role as the school district's career and technical education director, is accused of ensuring that funds for these programs were directed to Robotics, which was owned by her friend and co-defendant Joseph Johnson.
According to the indictment, Williams Stapleton facilitated the company's invoices through the procurement process. Johnson testified that he was unaware of Williams Stapleton withdrawing over $1 million from his company's accounts between 2013 and 2020, attributing his lack of oversight to personal tragedy after his son's death in 2016. He stated that his office manager handled the mailing of blank checks to Williams Stapleton, who then wrote approximately 230 checks totaling $1,152,506 for her own benefit.
Johnson was found guilty of the same charges as Williams Stapleton. Williams Stapleton's attorney argued that his client stole money from Johnson's company but not from taxpayers. Evidence presented by prosecutors also indicated that both Williams Stapleton and Johnson failed to report thousands of dollars in payments from Robotics on their federal income tax returns. Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Federici stated that approximately 73% of the more than $3 million the company received was profit, which the co-defendants split. Investigators discovered that most of the company's funds originated from federal education grants obtained through contracts with the school district. Surveillance footage showed Williams Stapleton retrieving mail from the company's post office box in Albuquerque.