Judge accepts plea deal for ex-school superintendent
Charles Trujillo pleaded guilty to one count of fraud, gets 5 years’ probation
SANTA FE — A former head of the licensure division of the state’s Public Education Department who doctored credentials including college transcripts that allowed him to secure a $100,000-per-year job as superintendent of Mora Public Schools will serve no more than five years of probation under a plea agreement accepted by a district court judge in Taos on Monday.
While pleading guilty to one count of fraud, a second-degree felony, Charles Trujillo, 45, could petition the court for an early release from probation after 30 months under the agreement between Trujillo and the Fourth Judicial District, which prosecuted the case.
The plea agreement also calls for a “conditional discharge,” which means the felony conviction is removed from Trujillo’s record if he successfully completes probation.
Trujillo originally faced 19 counts, mostly felony
charges of forgery and fraud. If convicted on all counts, he would have faced maximum sentencing of more than 120 years in prison.
Under the agreement, Trujillo also forfeits more than $17,000 of contributions to his retirement fund made while working in Pecos and Mora.
In a news release Tuesday, Las Vegas, N.M., District Attorney Richard Flores staunchly defended the plea agreement that doesn’t include any jail time. He said his office reached out to what he called the victims in the case, which include the Mora and Pecos school districts, Luna Community College, New Mexico Highlands University and PED. Flores said none of them wanted to see Trujillo go to jail.
“To the contrary, we were advised that (Trujillo) did a good job as one of their administrators and, notwithstanding the charges, they would have likely continued to retain him as their administrator,” Flores said.
PED did not respond to a Journal inquiry Tuesday.
Flores also emphasized that his office offered the plea agreement before Trujillo’s attorney filed a motion to have the Fourth Judicial District dismissed from the case. The motion was based on allegations that one of the prosecuting attorneys in the case was having an affair with a magistrate judge that bound the case over to district court and that Flores had attempted to intimidate a witness into testifying.
“I said it then and I’ll say it again; that motion was nothing more than an attempt to throw mud at the wall in the hope that something would stick,” Flores said.
The D.A. also notes that Trujillo had no prior criminal record and hasn’t committed any other crimes since his arrest in 2016.
“The role of the District Attorney is to do justice, period,” he said. “Not revenge, not retribution, but justice. Now it’s up to Mr. Trujillo to comply with the terms of the agreement.”
Finally, he defended the agreement in saying that Judge Emilio J. Chavez accepted the agreement as “a fair resolution.”
Trujillo’s attorney, Sam Bregman, did not return phone messages Monday and Tuesday.