Woman sentenced in Maggie Cordova Elementary fraud case

A Rio Rancho woman has been sentenced in an embezzlement case from one of the city’s elementary school’s PTO.

Felisha Rabadanov, 38, of Rio Rancho, was initially summoned in June last year for embezzling $16,500 from the PTO organization at Maggie Cordova Elementary and also faced two charges of tampering with evidence.

At the time, she used the PTO money to pay for food, clothes and “necessary trips” for her family. She admitted to using the PTO funds “to make purchases she stated were necessary for herself and her family, to include paying for a hotel and Miami Heat tickets for her honeymoon.”

The missing funds came to light when new principal Shelley Havill reported missing funds from the PTO’s bank account in October 2022. According to a criminal complaint filed in magistrate court, Havill told police she went to Bank of the West to deactivate debit cards assigned to the former principal and Rabadanov, who had not been involved in the PTO since June 2021.

Now, she has been sentenced for the crime after she pled guilty to attempt to commit embezzlement, which is a fourth-degree felony. Had Rabadanov pled guilty or been found guilty of the full charges, she would have served up to three years for embezzlement and up 18 months on each count of tampering with evidence, totaling six years.

Instead, Rabadanov will do a year and a half in prison, then five years probation and one year on parole.

She will also have to pay restitution in installments to the school on top of any fines and fees.