Federal authorities unveiled the indictment of Democrat former New Mexico State Representative Sheryl Williams Stapleton on Wednesday, alleging she diverted millions of dollars from Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) to her personal bank account. The ex-lawmaker faces a litany of charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, bribery, mail fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The indictment offers an exhaustive account of the alleged misappropriation of funds, describing Williams Stapleton’s actions as “deceitful and dishonest.”
The investigation into Williams Stapleton’s activities began in July 2021, culminating in searches of her residence and other premises by agents from the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office. The inquiry centered on allegations of financial misconduct related to an APS program.
According to the 23-page indictment, Williams Stapleton directed a significant portion of APS’s non-personal grant Career and Technical Education (CTE) funding to a program called Robotics Management Learning Systems (Robotics), owned by her personal acquaintance Joseph Johnson. This program, which held the license for the CyberQuest software, received over $3 million from APS between July 2013 and June 2020, primarily sourced from federal grant money.
The indictment further details how Johnson provided Williams Stapleton with blank checks from the Robotics business account, which she then used for her personal benefit, totaling $1,152,506. Some of these funds were directed to companies and a nonprofit associated with Williams Stapleton.
Additionally, the indictment alleges that Williams Stapleton co-sponsored a bill in 2019 that established a new CTE fund, effectively funneling more money to Johnson’s Robotics company. It accuses her and Johnson of orchestrating a scheme to defraud New Mexico citizens, APS, and the United States Department of Education, leveraging her position for personal enrichment.
Williams Stapleton is scheduled to appear in federal court on April 9, while also facing 28 state charges, including money laundering and racketeering. She resigned from the Legislature in July 2021 and was subsequently terminated by the school district. Representing District 19 in Bernalillo County from 1995 to 2021, Williams Stapleton held various committee positions, including serving on the Education Committee and acting as the majority floor leader from 2017 to 2021.
Let’s just hope the charges stick; I’m skeptical, given Mew Mexico politics. Glad these are federal indictments.
The socialist party of NM aka democrats, will come to her defense to protect her. MLG will pardon her as she is one of her lackeys…..just as MLG did the bidding of Dinish
I without thinking assumed that the article would center around MLG !!!!
She will get away with it.. Loserjan and her regime protect themselves!
And don’t forget she’s a woman of color. Indicting her is racist don’t you know?
This corrupt legislature is not the only one. There should be a clean sweep of every elected and appointed official.
For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
1 Tim 6:10
Now that she’s been indicted, please remove her name from the building in her honor. The building is in the State fairgrounds. She chose greed over honor, race should not play a factor,
Will there be an audit of her political career and the decisions made under her watch? How many of the bills and laws she passed to the governor to sign were financial benefiting her or her family, friends, or party.