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Journal North: Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment
Friday, May 15, 2009
Ex-School Exec Guilty of Fraud
By Raam Wong
Journal Northern Bureau
SANTA FE — Roberta Vigil was found guilty Thursday of misspending taxpayer money on invitation-only parties, athletic equipment and other items while working at the West Las Vegas School District.
The former bilingual coordinator was convicted of fraud over $2,500 and conspiracy to commit fraud over $2,500, which are third- and fourth-degree felonies, respectively.
They carry a possible sentence of up to 4 1/2 years imprisonment, state prosecutors said after the verdict in state District Court in Santa Fe.
The eight-man, four-woman jury deliberated for more than four hours Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning.
Roberta Vigil's head dropped slightly as the verdict was read. Her husband, Rep. Richard Vigil, D-Ribera, sat behind her in court, as he did throughout the four-day trial. Roberta Vigil was released on her own recognizance, pending a sentencing hearing.
Some of the money for the 2006 party came from a state appropriation her lawmaker husband helped secure for his wife's department. Richard Vigil is the brother of Robert Vigil, a former state treasurer who is in prison after being convicted of attempted extortion.
The office of Attorney General Gary King issued a statement saying the verdict “sends a message that misuse of public monies will be prosecuted by this office and that this type of behavior will not be tolerated by the people of New Mexico.”
Soon after the verdict was read, Vigil's attorney, Sam Bregman, moved to have it tossed out. He contended that “no reasonable jury” could have reached that decision.
“We respect the work of this jury but adamantly disagree with its verdict,” Bregman said.
District Judge Stephen Pfeffer told Bregman to put his motion in writing.
The trial was the second of three the AG's office is expected to prosecute in connection with Vigil's tumultuous tenure at the school district. In the first trial, last August, Vigil and her one-time assistant were acquitted of charges that they cheated on a professional test to earn the assistant a raise. The scandal has derailed the careers of three well-known Las Vegas residents whom a former mayor once called “pillars of the community.”
The state alleged that Vigil, School Board member Ralph Garcia and Superintendent Joe Baca conspired to fraudulently spend bilingual education funds on sports equipment, an LED sign and two parties at which New Mexico music legend Al Hurricane and his band performed.
In district paperwork, Vigil referred to the parties as training workshops.
The judge earlier this week dismissed charges against Garcia, ruling that no reasonable jury could find Garcia committed any crimes. Garcia served on the school board for nearly three decades before deciding not to run for re-election this year.
Baca was forced to resign as superintendent and surrender his state administrative license. He is the defendant in a third case headed to trial this summer.
Bregman did not put on a defense. But during arguments, he referred to the federal law that pertains to the use of bilingual funds as vague and argued that Vigil's supervisors never questioned her purchases and instead signed off on them. Top district officials also attended the first of two “Una Noche Encantada” parties, yet apparently never questioned the expenditures, he said.
Prosecutors argued that the rules on bilingual money are clear and that Vigil was intentionally misleading in her description of the parties as “workshops” and Hurricane as a “presenter.”
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