Henrietta Trujillo, 63, of Corrales, tried to plead guilty to embezzlement of over $20,000 Monday, but First Judicial District Court Judge Jason Lidyard rejected the plea arrangement.
The plea would have left Trujillo with a felony record and a nine-year suspended sentence, and she would not serve any jail time. She would have also been required to pay back the $81,910.40 to Northern New Mexico College, and $4,294 to the New Mexico Department of Taxation and Revenue, First Judicial District Attorney Marco Serna said.
As he rejected the plea, Lidyard referenced other defendants in custody and said there were people who had stolen things of far less value shoplifting, who were sentenced to jail, seemingly implying that the white collar nature of the crime did not warrant a different kind of sentence.
“Today, Judge Lidyard rejected the negotiated plea in State v. Henrietta Trujillo indicting it was ‘too lenient,’” Serna said Monday. “This came as an unfortunate surprise to the District Attorney’s Office who had worked with the Defendant and the Northern New Mexico College (NNMC) for a resolution that contemplated the full restitution that can be traced to her embezzlement scheme and the unpaid taxes attributable to her illegal windfall.”
After Lidyard rejected the plea, Trujillo, through her attorney David Serna, no relation, waived a formal reading of the charges and entered a plea of not guilty. Her case will move forward and she will be due back in court in February 2020.
She was released with standard conditions which include not consuming drugs or alcohol and obeying all state, local and federal laws. Lidyard did add an additional condition that Trujillo not enter any gambling establishment.
Trujillo resigned her position as finance director at Northern New Mexico College in March 2017, and provided her supervisor with a box of evidence detailing how she allegedly kept over $200,000 from the state entity, a previous Rio Grande SUN article states.
New Mexico State Police Agent Mitch Bengston found a total of $81,910 in cash was taken from the College, and an additional $167,433 in checks were never deposited or cashed.
Trujillo told Bengston that when she “could not make ends meet,” she began to take the deposits from the safe and would keep the cash. She said she planned to be able to pay it all back after her personal financial situation improved.
Trujillo’s financial situation apparently never improved and State Police Agent Wayne Harvey got records from the Pueblo of Pojoaque that showed Trujillo gambled $519,817 at casinos in the Pueblo between 2007 and 2016 with her players card.
First Judicial District Attorney Marco Serna told the SUN in August 2017 he would indict Trujillo within 30 days. Months later in October 2017 he said it was taking longer to indict because of the complicated nature of the crime.
In March 2019, Serna said he was in “pre-indictment plea negotiations,” and that the white collar nature of the crime warranted a different approach.
“This office focuses precious resources on dangerous, violent offenses like murders and rapes, but also has a commitment to reaching full restitution for white collar crimes through pre-indictment pleas,” Serna said. “We are consistent in the approach regarding all white collar crimes and will continue the policy.”
Charges were filed July 12 in the Trujillo case when she was charged with a single count of embezzlement of over $20,000.
A spokesman for Serna’s office said at the time a plea deal was in the works and would include repayment of the embezzled money as well as additional payments to New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department.