Ex-cop, school official charge in theft

CUBA, N.M. (KRQE) - A former police officer and past police-academy administrator has been arrested in the theft of handicap ramps from a school district.

Beverly Rodriguez is accused of stealing the ramps while she worked at her latest job as a high-ranking official in the troubled Cuba Independent Schools district.

This week New Mexico State Police arrested Rodriguez, 58, a former bureau chief at the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy. Police say up until 2010 she was the head of transportation for the school district and then the head of operations overseeing construction projects.

On that job she allegedly stole two handicapped ramps worth $5,000 each and belonging to the district. She told police she took one to her house to be used by her mother who had knee surgery.

Rodriguez claims she bought one ramp at an auction in 2006 but changed that story and said her father bought it, according to investigators. Police say they gave her weeks to produce receipts.

When she couldn't, she was charged with felony larceny.  Rodriguez is free on $25,000 bond.

Police say prior to taking the job in Cuba, Rodriguez was a cop.

"According to the Law Enforcement Academy she was a prior police officer here in New Mexico and bureau chief for a certain time at the academy," said State Police Lt. Robert McDonald.

Her arrest is one of many issues facing the Cuba school district.

State Police began a public corruption investigation of the district last December after a former business manager claimed she was fired on trumped-up charges because she was going to expose wrongdoing.

In March investigators say they found bus contractors had overcharged the district hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years.

There have been no arrests in that case, but the investigation is continuing as is an overall probe into possible misdeeds.