Federal trial begins for former New Mexico house majority leader
Sheryl Williams Stapleton faces 37 criminal counts, including bribery and mail fraud, tied to Albuquerque Public Schools funds.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —
Former New Mexico House Majority Leader and former APS official, Sheryl Williams Stapleton, is facing a federal jury on 37 criminal counts, including bribery, mail fraud, and money laundering. Stapleton was a Democratic member of the New Mexico House of Representatives, representing District 19.
Stapleton’s trial began Tuesday with opening statements from prosecutors and the defense. She was first charged in state court in 2021, but in 2024, federal prosecutors brought their own case against her, moving the allegations into federal court.
“It’s a fall from grace story, someone who rode high in the Democratic political establishment and is now facing a number of years in a federal prison,” legal expert John Day said.
The case centers on Robotics Management Learning Systems, a company owned by Jeff Johnson. APS paid Robotics to provide a computer program called Cyberquest to help students with math at several APS high schools.
“So the claim by the feds by the U.S. Attorney’s Office is that Stapleton and Johnson were basically in cahoots getting money through APS, and a lot of it included federal dollars, which is why the case is in federal court,” Day said.
According to the indictment, APS paid Robotics approximately $3.25 million from 2013 to 2021, with some of the funds coming from federal grants made up of taxpayer dollars. Prosecutors allege Robotics was supposed to use the money to run the program and pay people to maintain the software. However, court documents state the company spent about $806,000 on business expenses, leaving about $2.4 million unused, and that most of the money was not spent on the program.
“That the money would go to Johnson’s business, and then that money would get kicked back to Stapleton through the use of checks from Johnson’s business,” Day said.
Stapleton is accused of using those checks to give more than $1.1 million to an Albuquerque restaurant she owned and a nonprofit she and Johnson ran.
Day noted that the defense will have a tough argument to make and will likely try to separate Stapleton from the public money by arguing the funds belonged to Johnson.
“That is an effort to mitigate the damage on Stapleton’s behalf, claiming that it wasn’t the taxpayers who were defrauded,” Day said.
Testimony started Tuesday with the APS chief financial officer taking the stand as the first witness. Prosecutors presented jurors with contracts, invoices, and emails to demonstrate how APS spends its money and to map the alleged flow of misused funds.
“It’s tough for a jury to stay awake when you’re looking at all these different financial records. But the prosecutors are hoping that they can present such a compelling case that the jurors are going to convict,” Day said.
The trial is expected to take about two weeks.
