State Sen. Katrina Robinson (D–Tenn.) was found guilty of federal wire fraud.
In July 2020, she was first accused of stealing $600,000 from federal grants, and the FBI searched her home.
The federal government had set aside this money for scholarships to a health care school: The Health Institute in Memphis. The school trains nursing assistants and providers of elder care, and Robinson was managing the school at the time.
However, Robinson used the money on personal expenses, including her wedding, her honeymoon, her Senate campaign, a Jeep Renegade for her daughter, some vacations for her family, and a snow cone business for her children.
She had been spending federal money on herself over the course of four years. Originally, she faced 20 charges, including fraud, theft, and embezzlement.
Last week a district court indicted her on five of the 20 counts, court records show. The court acquitted her of the remaining 15 charges.
Later that week, she was tried for the five counts of wire fraud. A federal jury convicted her on four of those counts.
Between her four convictions, Robinson was found guilty of stealing about $3,400.
She claimed to have been wrongly accused, and she testified in her own defense.
“I entered this process knowing that I am innocent and still I maintain that I am innocent,” Robinson told reporters after her conviction, according to the Associated Press.
Her defense attorneys argued that Robinson had paid for these luxuries with profits pilfered from tuition payments at her school. They said that they were considering filing a motion for a new trial, the AP reported.
Prosecutors presented financial documents and called FBI agents to testify.
Robinson remains undecided about whether to resign.
“My service to the state Senate; I’m still committed to that,” she told reporters, according to the AP. “However, I have not yet made a decision about how we move forward.”
The Assoicated Press and The Horn editorial team contributed to this article.