Former New Mexico state representative charged with criminal charges

NEW MEXICO – This new school year has not had the best start for the Albuquerque Public School system (APS), because days after its start a murder was presented in a school, in addition, school administrators have reported cases of students with bad behavior and now it is revealed that the former representative of the APS is accused of serious crimes.

After nearly two months of investigations, the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office conducted a general raid on the properties of Sheryl Williams Stapleton, who is now a former state representative and former administrator of APS.

In fact, these two charges were dropped from him in less than a month, due to the accusations against her.

Williams Stapleton is accused of serious crimes and this Monday a jury presented charges of extortion, money laundering, fraud and bribery, as well as different charges for other crimes that were committed between 2015 and 2021.

According to the investigations made by the authorities, APS paid the company Robotics more than $ 5 million during 13 years to provide educational software to the students of the city’s educational system.

Of that amount, it is believed that about $ 1 million was for Williams Stapletons, it is also mentioned that there could be security videos where he is allegedly seen trading checks issued by APS to Robotics.

Due to the complaint made against her, the defendant was forced to resign from her state office in the New Mexico Legislature last month, where she held the position of majority leader in the House until her resignation.

During the month of August, the Albuquerque Public Schools fired Williams Stapleton from her position as director of the district’s Career and Technical Education Department.

In this case, other employees have also been put on leave, while the authorities are investigating accusations against them.

Through press releases, the now former employee made it known that she is innocent of the charges against her.

Her lawyer, Ahmad Assed, added that “the lady firmly maintains her innocence”.

The state must present evidence to support its accusations and must not act under reasonable doubts, in addition to the presumption of innocence must be met in the case of its client, he added.

The defendant has a bachelor’s degree in education from New Mexico State University, a master’s degree in multicultural education, and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of New Mexico.