Syracuse, NY — Former Upstate administrator Sergio Garcia pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor Wednesday, admitting that he submitted a puffed up resume to get his $340,000-a-year job at the taxpayer funded university and hospital.

Garcia’s plea bargain left Upstate’s former chief of staff with a criminal record, but spared him a felony conviction.

Prosecutor Melanie Carden had sought a felony, accusing Garcia of intentionally lying on his resume as part of a greater plan to defraud the university. Garcia’s lawyer, Joseph Bergh, had argued no crime was committed, saying his client simply exaggerated his resume.

The plea comes after a long-running investigation that began after Garcia quit in 2018 following a controversial speech that included exaggerated remarks about his foreign service. The subsequent investigation uncovered exaggerations on his resume about his work in the U.S. Department of State — he wasn’t “Chief of Staff,” as he claimed — and