A former New Mexico lawmaker funneled millions in public school money to her buddy's company.
Sheryl Williams Stapleton, a 69-year-old ex-state representative, just got nailed by a federal jury on every single charge after a nine-day trial. Her co-defendant and pal Joseph Johnson, 75, went down with her. The verdict caps off one of the most brazen corruption schemes to hit the Land of Enchantment in years, as reported here.
Here is how the grift worked. Stapleton held two gigs simultaneously. She represented District 19 in the state legislature from 1995 to 2021, eventually climbing to majority floor leader. At the same time, she ran career and technical education programs for Albuquerque Public Schools. That dual role gave her the perfect setup to play both sides.
Between July 2013 and June 2021, Stapleton steered a whopping 40% of the school district's non-personnel budget toward Johnson's outfit, Robotics Management Learning Systems. The company supposedly installed CyberQuest software in classrooms. APS shelled out $3.25 million total, including $2.52 million in federal Perkins funds. In the legislature, Stapleton was sponsoring and pushing bills that sent even more cash toward the very programs she controlled.
But wait, it gets juicier. Stapleton personally picked up checks from a post office box and deposited them into Robotics' bank account. Johnson then handed her blank checks from that same account. She helped herself to roughly $1.15 million, which is 38% of everything APS paid the company.
Where did all that stolen loot go? Over $286,000 landed in S. Williams & Associates, a firm she owned. Another $313,000 went to Taste of the Caribbean, a restaurant in Albuquerque run by her and her family. Nearly $480,000 flowed into the Ujima Foundation, a nonprofit she and Johnson operated together. And $72,000 covered random expenses, including renovations on her personal home.
To keep the whole operation under wraps, neither Stapleton nor Johnson reported the income on required state financial disclosures or federal tax returns. According to the Justice Department, that secrecy was central to the scheme.
The jury did not hold back. Stapleton caught guilty verdicts on conspiracy to defraud the United States, five bribery counts tied to federally funded programs, 13 mail fraud and honest services fraud counts, three false tax return charges, nine money laundering counts, and one conspiracy to commit money laundering charge. She theoretically faces up to 524 years behind bars. Johnson was convicted on the same slate and could get up to 515 years.
For now, the court allowed Stapleton to remain free until sentencing, which has not yet been scheduled. So she is walking around a free woman after stealing over a million dollars from schoolchildren's education budgets. Politics at its finest, folks.
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