A federal jury convicted former New Mexico House Majority Leader Sheryl Williams Stapleton on every count she faced.
Stapleton and her longtime associate, Washington D.C.-based business owner Joseph Johnson, were both found guilty following a nine-day federal trial. The charges against them included bribery, mail fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and filing false tax returns.
Stapleton had a long career in Democratic politics, representing New Mexico’s 19th House District from 1995 to 2021 and serving as majority floor leader from 2017 through 2021. Simultaneously, she held a position with Albuquerque Public Schools as director of the Perkins Project and as the district’s career and technical education coordinator. That combination of roles, prosecutors argued, gave her the power to direct public money where she wanted it to go.
Prosecutors said the scheme ran from 2013 through 2021. During that stretch, Johnson’s company, Robotics Management Learning Systems, sold and supported CyberQuest software used in Albuquerque classrooms. Stapleton, meanwhile, controlled the school district’s funding and procurement process that kept sending business his way. Roughly 40% of the district’s non-personnel career and technical education budget flowed to Robotics during that period.
As originally reported, jurors began deliberating Thursday afternoon and returned their verdicts on Friday. Stapleton was convicted on conspiracy to defraud the federal government, five bribery counts, 13 counts of mail fraud and honest services fraud, three false tax return counts, nine money laundering counts, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Johnson faced a comparable set of fraud, bribery, and money laundering charges and was likewise convicted on all of them.
The Justice Department said Albuquerque Public Schools paid Robotics approximately $3.25 million under contracts tied to its software and related services. Of that total, roughly $2.52 million came from federal Perkins funds, money designated for career and technical education programs serving students.
Stapleton did not simply steer the contracts. She reviewed and approved the company’s invoices directly, and she directed employees under her supervision to approve them as well. She also personally retrieved school district checks from a post office box and deposited them into the Robotics bank account.
The case represents one of the more significant public corruption convictions tied to a sitting state legislative leader in recent years. Stapleton spent more than two decades in the New Mexico statehouse before the charges caught up with her. The jury needed less than a full day of deliberation to find that the evidence against both defendants left no reasonable doubt.