Jury finds Sheryl Williams Stapleton guilty on federal charges tied to APS funds
Sheryl Williams Stapleton was found guilty on all 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, was found guilty by a federal jury on all charges in federal court.
Stapleton faced several charges including bribery, mail fraud, and money laundering. Stapleton was a Democratic member of the New Mexico House of Representatives, representing District 19.
Stapleton was first charged in state court in 2021, but in 2024, federal prosecutors brought their own case against her, moving the case 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.