West Las Vegas, NEW MEXICO

July 20, 2007 - Roberta Vigil, a Director of Bilingual Education, pleaded not guilty to charges of

Fraud (2nd degree felony),

Misuse of Public Money (4th degree felony),

Prohibited Sales by School Board Members (4th degree felony) and

Conspiracy (3rd degree felony).

I n addition, Roberta Vigil is charged with Tampering with Public Records (4th degree felony) and Procurement Code violation (misdemeanor).

The accusations against her include allegedly reporting false test scores to the Public Education Department to boost the number of students labeled as “English language learners” and thus increase the amount of funding for the district.

Four members of the West Las Vegas school district were indicted on government corruption charges in June.

Vigil is the wife of Rep. Richard Vigil, D-Las Vegas. She is also the sister-in-law of Robert Vigil, the former state treasurer who was convicted in federal court last September of attempted extortion. He resigned in October 2005 as lawmakers were considering whether to impeach him. He began serving a 37-month sentence in April.

TT - LINK to previous post and New Mexico Attorney General press release.

Feb 23, 2008 - Vigil is now a part-time instructor at Luna Community College. College interim president Sigfredo Maestas says he was aware of the indictment when he hired Vigil as an adjunct instructor in a teacher education course.