ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The feds on Wednesday released the indictment of former New Mexico State Representative Sheryl Williams Stapleton, who is accused of funneling millions of dollars from Albuquerque Public Schools to her personal bank account. The former state lawmaker and APS administrator has been charged with 35 counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, bribery, mail fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Federal prosecutors have filed an extremely detailed account of where they say millions of dollars were illegally used, calling the tactics used by Williams Stapleton “deceitful and dishonest.”
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The investigation began after emerging in July 2021. Agents with the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office searched the former House Majority Leader’s southeast Albuquerque home and other offices over allegations she misused funds tied to an Albuquerque Public School program.
In a 23-page indictment, federal investigators lay out exactly how much money Williams Stapleton funneled from APS into her personal bank account. The program called Robotics Management Learning Systems (Robotics) was owned and operated by Joseph Johnson, a personal friend of Williams Stapleton’s. Robotics held the software license and copyright for CyberQuest, a computer program that teachers can use in the classroom. The indictment states that from July 2013 through June 30, 2020, Williams Stapleton directed 40% of APS’s non-personal grant CTE funding to the Robotics program. The indictment states that Stapleton paid a little over $3 million to the program, a majority of it federal grant money.
Courtesy of federal indictment
The documents also show that Johson would provide blank checks for the Robotics business checking account to Williams Stapleton, who wrote 233 checks for her own benefit, totaling $1,152,506. Some of the checks went to companies and a nonprofit she owned.
The indictment also points out that Williams Stapleton helped co-sponsor a bill in 2019 that created a new CTE fund allowing for more money to be sent to Johnsons Robotics company. Further into the indictment, the feds state that Willaims Stapelton and her co-conspirator Joseph Johnson “devised and intended to devise a scheme to defraud and deprive the citizens of New Mexico, APS and the United States Department of Education. They also stated that Willaims Stapleton used her position to enrich herself.
Williams Stapleton has to appear in federal court on April 9. She is still awaiting trial for at least 28 state charges that include money laundering and racketeering. She has a status hearing for that case next month.
Williams Stapleton resigned from the Legislature in July 2021 and was later fired by the school district. She represented District 19 in Bernalillo County from 1995 to 2021. In the House of Representatives, she served on various committees including the Education Committee and was the majority floor leader from 2017 to 2021.
