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Friday, July 10, 2009
Ex-Official Pleads No Contest
Journal Staff Report
The third defendant in a case over misspending bilingual funds in West Las Vegas Schools entered a plea of “no contest” Wednesday, potentially marking the end of prosecutions related to expenditures that included two adults-only parties with New Mexico music legend Al Hurricane and his band.
Former superintendent Joe Baca pleaded “no contest” to fraud of $250 or less, a petty misdemeanor, and agreed to pay the state $2,750 in restitution.
The fraud, according to the plea agreement, occurred between July 1, 2004, and June 30, 2006.
First District Judge Stephen Pfeffer accepted the agreement, giving Baca a conditional discharge and placing him on unsupervised probation for six months, according to the state Attorney General's Office.
Attorney General Gary King called it a “good outcome” in a news release Thursday.
In May, Roberta Vigil, former bilingual coordinator in the West Las Vegas Schools, was found guilty of fraud over $2,500 and conspiracy to commit fraud, both felonies. Vigil and her one-time assistant previously had been acquitted on charges that they cheated on a professional test to earn the assistant a raise.
Also, a judge dismissed charges against a former school board member, Ralph Garcia, who was charged with conspiring to misspend bilingual education funds on items such as sports equipment, an LED sign, and the parties.
In documentation of the expenditures on the parties, Vigil had referred to them as “workshops” and Hurricane as a “presenter.”
Baca was involved as the supervisor who approved the expenditures.
He resigned as superintendent and surrendered his state administrative license. His trial was scheduled to get under way this summer.
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