Earl Joe Nelson of Biloxi, Mississippi, and Monekea Smith-Taylor of St. Louis, Missouri, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit embezzlement. The hearing took place before District Judge Sharion Aycock in Aberdeen. Mario Willis of Southaven, Mississippi, had previously entered a guilty plea to the same charge in October 2025.
Court documents state that from July 2019 to May 2022, Nelson served as superintendent of Clarksdale Municipal School District and later became superintendent of Leake County School District in October 2022. Willis was superintendent of Hollandale School District, while Smith-Taylor worked as a schoolteacher in St. Louis.
Nelson and Willis used their positions to arrange reciprocal consulting contracts with inflated payments for services that were not actually provided. Between November 2021 and June 2023, the Hollandale School District paid about $94,400 to Ira Reed Consulting, Inc., and N17 Group, LLC for Nelson’s benefit under Willis’s direction. Similarly, Clarksdale Municipal School District paid approximately $25,400 between November 2021 and May 2022 at Nelson’s direction for the benefit of Willis through K&S Enterprises, LLC and ALM Brothers, LLC. From January to May 2023, Leake County School District also paid about $23,500 to K&S Enterprises for Willis’s benefit.
The investigation found that many invoices submitted for these payments were nearly identical except for name changes. Nelson would reuse invoices generated by Willis by changing names before submitting them back to Hollandale School District.
Willis also directed payments from Hollandale School District totaling roughly $250,902 between June 2021 and May 2023 to Erudition Consulting Company owned by Smith-Taylor. After receiving payment from the district, Smith-Taylor reportedly met with Nelson and gave him half the amount received in cash.
All three individuals face up to five years in prison. Sentencing will be determined by Judge Aycock after reviewing U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
“The protection and education of children goes to the very heart of who we are as a people,” said U.S. Attorney Scott F. Leary. “Those that violate this sacred trust will face the consequences of their actions. Always remember those law enforcement officers who spend their careers protecting the public and especially the children of this great state.”
“Today’s action shows that these former school leaders not only knowingly and willfully abused their positions of trust for personal gain but did so at the expense of the educational development of children. That is unacceptable,” said Adam Shanedling, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General’s Eastern Regional Office.  “Deservedly, they will both be held accountable for cheating Mississippi students and taxpayers.”
“Thank you to the US Attorney’s Office for helping us bring this case to a close,” said State Auditor Shad White. “My office will continue to work with prosecutors to deliver record results for taxpayers.”
The case is being investigated by the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor along with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Clayton A. Dabbs is prosecuting.
