近距离内射合集

Former House Majority Leader Sheryl Williams Stapleton stole money from the company of her former college friend and co-defendant, but not from taxpayers as prosecutors allege, her attorney told jurors on the first day of testimony in her federal trial.

The question jurors must answer in the two-week trial is "who did she take money from?" Ryan Villa, Stapleton's attorney, said in opening statements Tuesday.

鈥淪he did take money and she shouldn't have," Villa said of Stapleton. "We're not here to tell you that she is 100% innocent."

But Villa said federal prosecutors will not be able to prove that Stapleton conspired with her co-defendant, Joseph Johnson, to steal federal education funding slated to pay for technical education programs at Albuquerque Public Schools.

Instead, Stapleton stole money from Johnson's company, Robotics Management Learning Systems, a Washington, D.C., firm, that contracted with APS to provide its computerized software for teaching math and science to high school students.

Johnson's attorney told jurors later Tuesday that Johnson was the victim of Stapleton's criminal actions. Johnson and Stapleton are being tried together.

Villa said Stapleton, 68, obtained money both from Robotics and from the Ujima Foundation, a nonprofit entity that she and Johnson operated and controlled together, and used the money for her own benefit. Villa also acknowledged that Stapleton failed to report the income on her tax returns.

But Robotics provided valuable services to APS, which awarded contracts to the company after adhering to the district鈥檚 procurement process in accordance with state and federal laws and regulations, Villa said.

Prosecutors "are not going to be able to show you that this was a plan, a scheme, between Ms. Stapleton and Mr. Johnson," Villa said.

Federal prosecutors told jurors Tuesday that Stapleton used her position as coordinator and director of APS's Career and Technical Education program to direct funding to Robotics for the use of the company's software in the classroom.

She then allegedly directed $1,152,506 from Robotics' checking account into accounts she controlled using blank checks provided by Robotics, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Federici. The alleged violations took place from July 2013 through June 2020.

APS paid Robotics about $3.2 million in all, of which about $2.5 million were U.S. Department of Education funds, Federici said. Johnson's firm made a profit margin as high as 73% and he and Stapleton split the money "half and half," he said.

Stapleton and Johnson were indicted by a federal grand jury in March 2024 on 37 criminal counts, including bribery, mail fraud and money laundering.

One count of the indictment charges Stapleton and Johnson with conspiring together to defraud the 近距离内射合集 States.

Stapleton and Johnson have pleaded not guilty to all 37 counts each, and deny all the allegations.

The federal indictment alleges Stapleton wrote checks from Robotics to companies she controlled. They included 104 checks totaling about $480,000 to the Ujima Foundation.

Another 56 checks totaling about $313,000 were made to Taste of the Caribbean, an Albuquerque restaurant Stapleton and her family owned and operated, the indictment said. About 60 checks totaling $286,772 were written to her personal consulting firm, S. Williams & Associates, it said.

Johnson鈥檚 attorney, Nicole Moss, told jurors that no evidence exists that Johnson had any idea that Stapleton was stealing money from him.

Johnson "turned inwards" after the death of his son in 2016 and left the management of Robotics and the APS contracts largely to Stapleton and others, Moss said in opening statements. Stapleton took advantage of Johnson's hands-off management of Robotics to steal money from the company, she said.

"The victim here, the person who was cheated by Ms. Stapleton, was Mr. Johnson," Moss said.

Also Tuesday, an APS official testified that she became so concerned about the district鈥檚 relationship with Robotics that she considered resigning her post as executive director of the APS procurement office.

Rennette Apodaca, who has served as APS鈥檚 chief financial officer since 2021, told jurors that she became so upset with some of Stapleton鈥檚 funding requests for Robotics that she repeatedly packed and unpacked belongings in her office in anticipation of quitting.

鈥淚 was becoming very apprehensive and didn鈥檛 understand what was going on,鈥� Apodaca testified. 鈥淚 started to feel that I could not unsee what I had seen.鈥�

Central to Apodaca鈥檚 concerns were procurement requests for teacher training provided by Robotics that cost tens of thousands of dollars paid with federal funds, she said.

Apodaca took her concerns in 2021 to then-Superintendent Scott Elder and a human resources official who recommended APS turn the matter over to the school district鈥檚 attorneys at Robles, Rael & Anaya, who later recommended handing the case of the former Democratic leader to the New Mexico Department of Justice.

Federal prosecutors will continue to present their case Wednesday.

Olivier Uyttebrouck covers the court system. You can reach him at olivier@abqjournal.com.