Former Colinas Elementary PTA president summoned for alleged embezzlement

Former Colinas Del Norte Elementary School Parent Teacher Association President Samantha Gallegos, about 42, of Rio Rancho has been under investigation by Rio Rancho Police since Aug. 8, 2022, for embezzlement accusations made by the school’s principal.

Officers received a call from the principal, who told officers that the PTA got new leadership in 2019 with Gallegos established as the president and another individual as vice president. The PTA bank account, according to the principal, had $13,900 in it as of March 2020.

The principal said he wanted meetings to take place that would check on that balance for the next year, and a half but those meetings didn’t happen due to the COVID pandemic. The principal said a meeting took place in September for the 2021-22 school year, but when he checked the balance of the PTA account, it showed that it had $6,000 in it.

The principal confronted Gallegos and the vice president about the amount. They said the PTA had “more expenses” and zero fundraisers. He said they didn’t give any more information than that. He became frustrated and asked them again where the money had gone. However, they refused to tell him anything and got “defensive” with him. He asked for receipts so he could follow the paper trail, but they didn’t give him any.

Officers met with the principal again to discuss in detail the allegations against the PTA president. He told them he believed Gallegos to be the one doing the main embezzling and that the vice president was more cooperative. He told officers a treasurer was hired to oversee expenses in the PTA, who found “the PTA was not being run correctly and there were several red flags in the bank account.”

At this point, the principal requested an audit of the bank account. He received bank statements dating back to 2019, when Gallegos and vice president assumed their roles.

Once the principal had the bank statements, he called a meeting with the president and vice president with all the PTA members present. Gallegos reportedly got very angry because of the accusations and stormed out of the meeting. The vice president stayed behind and talked with him. She told him that Gallegos was in charge so she would just give Gallegos the money to use for PTA purposes. The principal told police he felt she was being untruthful but that she seemed “shocked.”

After the meeting, both Gallegos and the vice president were voted out of the PTA by its members.

The treasurer wrote in a statement that Gallegos and the vice president were very welcoming when she joined the PTA as treasurer. Once she learned the rules and guidelines of PTAs in general, she noticed inconsistencies with how Gallegos operated. To be able to sign a check with the PTA bank account, it needs to have two signatures. The treasurer wrote that Gallegos didn’t do this and signed off on multiple checks by herself.

The treasurer also wrote that the PTA never established a budget and therefore shouldn’t have spent any money in the account. Lastly, the treasurer stated the PTA checkbook was supposed to be in her charge but Gallegos refused to give it to her.

When the principal learned this, he stopped the Colinas PTA all together.

The treasurer was able to close the PTA bank account so Gallegos wouldn’t be able to cash any checks. She told police that the day after the account was closed, Gallegos attempted to cash a check for $100 and was unsuccessful. She also said she was able to see Gallegos was taking money out of the account at US Bank and putting it into a personal account at Bank of America.

During the investigation into the bank records, oficers counted 15 questionable checks in question with the largest for a raffle at $2,700. There is no record of that amount going into the PTA account. There were also some checks for a COVID drive, PayPal and other things. All the money was paid to Gallegos directly and not the PTA account.

Officers requested a warrant to look into Gallegos’ bank records and received the information Nov. 20. They found that all the checks from the PTA account had been deposited into her personal account at Bank of America dating from September 2020 to July 2023. They weren’t able to verify the raffle, the COVID drive or the PayPal money. Officers state the raffle money is known to be in cash and that Gallegos could have just kept it as cash.

When officers looked at the checks individually, they were written out to her but weren’t deposited to her account until several months after they were written. Officers said it appeared that Gallegos would deposit the checks and then add more money to try to cover her tracks.

Officers called Gallegos six times and never got a response. She was summoned Nov. 29 for embezzlement. The amount officers believe she embezzled in 3,667.40. The amount they weren’t able to verify with the raffle, COVID drive and PayPal transactions was $3,187.27.

If the summons is answered and Gallegos is convicted, she will face three years in prison and have to pay $5,000 in fines.