By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A former high-ranking New Mexico Democratic legislator has been convicted of dozens of federal charges stemming from a yearslong scheme to divert money from public schools to a friend’s company in exchange for kickbacks.

Jurors reached the verdict Friday, following a trial that included testimony from Sheryl Williams Stapleton’s former colleagues, investigators and tax experts. Williams Stapleton, who declined to testify, could face 20 years in federal prison when sentenced. Her attorney said all options were being considered, including an appeal.

“We’re obviously very disappointed with respect to the verdict rendered by the jury,” defense attorney Ahmad Assed told The Associated Press via a text message. “Based on the evidence we put forward, we were hopeful for a different outcome.”

A grand jury indicted Williams Stapleton, 69, in March 2024 on more than three dozen counts that included bribery, mail fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the federal government.

Those were on top of money laundering, racketeering and other charges filed in 2021 by state prosecutors. A trial in that case is scheduled for October.

A former state House majority leader and an administrator with the state’s largest public school district, in Albuquerque, Williams Stapleton was first elected in 1994. She resigned from the House two days after search warrants were served at her home during summer 2021, and Albuquerque Public Schools fired her.

Prosecutors said the district paid more than $3 million to Robotics Management Learning Systems LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based company at the center of the state and federal cases. Most of that money came from federal funds meant for vocational education programs.

As the school district’s career and technical education director, Williams Stapleton made sure money for those programs went to Robotics, which was owned by her friend and co-defendant Joseph Johnson, prosecutors said.

Williams Stapleton was accused of ushering the company’s invoices through the procurement process. Johnson was accused of providing blank checks to Williams Stapleton, who in turn wrote about 230 checks totaling $1,152,506 “for her own benefit,” according to the indictment.

Johnson testified Tuesday that he was unaware that Williams Stapleton withdrew more than $1 million from his company’s checking accounts between 2013 and 2020. He claimed that he lost focus on the business after his son was killed in a car crash in 2016.

Johnson told jurors that he relied on his office manager and that she was the one who mailed the blank checks to Williams Stapleton. Johnson was found guilty of similar charges as Williams Stapleton, including bribery and money laundering.

Williams Stapleton’s attorney, Ryan Villa, told jurors that his client stole money from Johnson’s company but did not steal from state and federal taxpayers as alleged by prosecutors.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico will be playing a game of weather roulette Thursday and it’s all going to be determined by the cloud cover. 

To start off the morning, cloud cover is increasing across the state – especially for areas along and west of the Central Mountain Chain. Some patchy clouds are overhead for some east of the Central Mountain Chain.

If clouds stick around for longer today, this would lead to: 

1. Temperatures staying cooler, as the sun would have a harder time warming up the atmosphere.
2. Lower rain chances, especially thunderstorms. The clouds will act as a barrier so the atmosphere will be more stable.

If clouds clear out early enough and we get more sunshine, this would lead to:

1. Temperatures warming a couple of degrees warmer than what is forecast. The sun will heat the atmosphere more effectively.
2. As temperatures reach their convective temperature, clouds would be able to build higher into the atmosphere, which would ultimately lead to more efficient rain makers which usually comes from thunderstorms.
   • Computer weather model guidance that is leaning more towards this solution has an increase of coverage in rain, becoming more scattered instead of isolated.

Realistically, we’ve got a 50/50 shot at either play here. Take your pick. I’m leaning toward option one.

Either way, a few storms may produce some heavy rain today. The Weather Prediction Center early this morning still has over half of New Mexico under some type of excessive rain threat that could lead to flash flooding, except for most eastern areas

Most of the state that is under the flood threat is in the marginal risk (1 out of 4). Catron County and far western Socorro County are in a slight risk (2 out of 4) of seeing flash flooding somewhere within this outline.

Friday may start off similar to today but we should see enough clearing to get more activity. The weekend will see a shift in the monsoon moisture axis where storm coverage is forecast to favor the plume.

Long-range model guidance is now starting to favor the monsoon/heat high to re-establish itself back over New Mexico at the end of the weekend. Where it goes from there is up in the air between early to mid-next week, so confidence is low. This will impact our rain chances, which could be isolated to scattered and temperatures could be near normal or we’ll see another heat wave. A better picture should come into focus over the weekend.

Meteorologist Amanda Goluszka shares all the details in her full forecast in the video above.

MORE:

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Raising kids by yourself isn’t easy and finding support through it all can be even harder, especially in New Mexico.

An Albuquerque mom recognized this. She took it upon herself to build a new online platform to make it easier for new moms to find each other.

“The idea is that you can find people, right where you are, to lean on for support during this really important time,” said Lindley Gallegos Bach, the creator of NewMexicoMamas.com.

Already, a lot of local moms are signing up for NewMexicoMamas.com. Gallegos Bach said she got the idea from her time abroad in Denmark, Australia and New Zealand.

“In any of these countries, when you have a baby, the healthcare system puts you into a cohort of women who are at the same place gestationally. So you go through it together,” Gallegos Bach said.

Gallegos Bach had firsthand experience of how that kind of support isn’t always present in New Mexico.

“It took me a long time to find my mama cohort,” she said. “I asked my OB, I asked my doula, I looked everywhere and I couldn’t find it… I was messaging in Facebook groups and, of course, that’s like a giant forum and there’s you know weirdos in there.

“And I was like, screw it, I’ll just build it. So I did.”

NewMexicoMamas.com is a free, online platform. It organizes New Mexico moms into small groups, based on their baby’s birthdates and zip codes.

“I created it overnight,” Gallegos Bach said. “Then, by morning, I’d already had eight groups of six to eight women forming, and I was like, ‘Whoa! There was a need, there was a gap.’”

Gallegos Bach already runs a business during the day so this is essentially a side project. She plans on keeping it free for all moms too.

“I feel that it’s a gift to the New Mexico mama community,” she said. “There are mamas out there that are that are struggling. There’s people who are new to the community, there’s mamas who are newly single. There’s mamas that are navigating going back to work and so I just think anyone who can share the resource is doing their job to help our community prosper.”

Gallegos Bach is covering the costs of NewMexicoMamas.com for now. However, she said she is open to potential sponsorships in the future.