Earl Joe Nelson of Biloxi, Mississippi, and Monekea Smith-Taylor of St. Louis, Missouri, appeared in federal court in Aberdeen and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit embezzlement. Mario Willis of Southaven, Mississippi, had previously pleaded guilty to the same charge in October 2025.
Court documents state that between July 2019 and May 2022, Nelson served as superintendent of Clarksdale Municipal School District before moving to Leake County School District in October 2022. Willis was superintendent of Hollandale School District, while Smith-Taylor worked as a schoolteacher in St. Louis.
The defendants used their positions as school superintendents to establish consulting contracts that resulted in inflated payments for services not actually rendered. From November 2021 to June 2023, under Willis’s direction, Hollandale School District paid about $94,400 to Ira Reed Consulting, Inc. and N17 Group, LLC for Nelson’s personal benefit.
Nelson directed Clarksdale Municipal School District to pay around $25,400 between November 2021 and May 2022 to K&S Enterprises, LLC and ALM Brothers, LLC for Willis’s benefit. Additionally, from January 2023 to May 2023 while at Leake County School District, Nelson directed payments totaling approximately $23,500 to K&S Enterprises for Willis’s benefit.
Invoices supporting these transactions were often identical except for the names changed. Nelson reused invoices created by Willis by altering the names and resubmitting them for payment.
Willis also generated payments from Hollandale School District to Erudition Consulting Company—owned by Smith-Taylor—for consulting services at inflated rates or not provided at all. After being paid by the district between June 2021 and May 2023 (totaling about $250,902), Smith-Taylor would meet with Nelson in person and give him half the amount she received.
Each defendant faces up to five years in prison. Sentencing will be determined by District Judge Sharion Aycock after reviewing federal guidelines and 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 investigation is ongoing through efforts by the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor and the U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Clayton A. Dabbs is prosecuting this case.
