Child Support Fraud Nets 16 month sentence for woman
October 6, 2006
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Posted by ANCPR
- By Carolyn Carlson
- Journal Staff Writer
- Â Â Â A woman who orchestrated an elaborate ruse using fake DNA and forged Social Security, birth and baptismal records to create an imaginary child received 16 months in federal prison Thursday for filing a false tax return.
- Â Â Â Viola Trevino, 53, murmured to U.S. District Judge M. Christina Armijo that she would rather have five years’ probation so she can be employed in order to begin restitution payments to the Internal Revenue Service and to her ex-husband Steve Barreras.
- Â Â Â She owes more than $2,000 to the IRS and more than $26,000 to Barreras.
- Â Â Â “I do have to pay this money back … That is the most important thing,” Trevino said to Armijo. “I am really sorry for everything that has happened.”
- Â Â Â Trevino’s public defender Alonzo Padilla argued that justice would be served if Trevino received probation instead of 10 to 16 months in prison.
- Â Â Â He said Trevino has a long employment history and would not have trouble finding a job.
- Â Â Â Armijo did not agree.
- Â Â Â “I feel her employment history is negligible,” Armijo said.
- Â Â Â She said incarceration is appropriate.
- Â Â Â “I can’t ignore the fact that you have lived a life of deception for many, many years,” Armijo said. “In the interest of justice, you must be held accountable for your actions.”
- Â Â Â Trevino was taken into U.S. Marshal custody immediately following the sentencing.
- Â Â Â Shelly Barreras, the current wife of Trevino’s ex-husband, was in the courtroom and said the prison sentence is good news.
- Â Â Â “At least we will have 16 months of peace,” she said. “We figured with her luck, she would just get probation.”
- Â Â Â Trevino was indicted in May on six counts of filing a false return, according to court documents.
- Â Â Â The documents say she filed fraudulent returns for the years 1999 through 2004, claiming an imaginary child, Stephanie R. Trevino, as a dependent.
- Â Â Â Trevino received more than $20,000 in tax refunds during those years, much of it through the head of household deductions, earned income and child tax credits.
- Â Â Â Trevino pleaded guilty to one count and will have to pay the IRS back more than $2,200 plus interest and penalties. In addition, she will have to pay her ex-husband more than $26,000 in child support, lawyer’s fees and other costs.
- Â Â Â The bizarre case began when Trevino and Steve Barreras were legally divorced in August 1999. No minor children or pregnancy were mentioned in divorce papers. They had two children who were older than 18.
- Â Â Â Court records show Trevino had a tubal ligation in 1978 and Barreras had a vasectomy in 1998.
- Â Â Â In December 1999, Trevino was in court asking for child support and told the judge she had given birth to Barreras’ child in September.
- Â Â Â To persuade a Children’s Court judge to order the child support payments, Trevino concocted fake DNA evidence and forged documents to obtain a Social Security number and birth and baptismal certificates, court records show.
- Â Â Â They also show that both DNA tests ordered by the courts were done by a friend of the couple’s daughter, who might have provided the DNA for the paternity tests.
- Â Â Â Because of the DNA matches, the Child Enforcement Division garnisheed Steve Barreras’ paycheck for child support.
- Â Â Â In December 2004, state District Court Judge Linda Vanzi ordered Trevino to physically produce the child in court.
- Â Â Â But instead, Trevino picked up a 2-year-old girl and her grandmother from a South Valley street, promising them a trip to see Santa Claus, lunch and $50. Trevino took the child into Vanzi’s courtroom, leaving the grandmother in the car. When the grandmother followed her into court, Trevino had to admit that the child was not hers.
- Â Â Â Vanzi ruled Stephanie Trevino did not exist.
- Â Â Â Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg said Thursday her office is waiting for more information from other state agencies involved in the case in order to file charges.
- Â Â Â In April 2005, Gov. Bill Richardson said child welfare workers must sign affidavits saying they have actually seen the children they work with.
- Â Â Â Richardson called this “one of the most egregious examples of a bureaucracy abuse and negligence” he had ever heard of.
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While Viola Trevino actually got convicted and sentenced on “filing a false tax return”, District Attorney Kari Brandenburg said Thursday her office is waiting for — more information — from other state agencies involved in the case in order to file charges.
I CERTAINLY HOPE THAT SHE IS CRIMINALLY CHARGED WITH THE INITIAL — “PATERNITY FRAUD” — THAT ALL OF HER OTHER FRAUDS STEMMED FROM !!!
If Gov. Richardson thinks that this is “one of the most egregious examples of a bureaucracy abuse and negligence he had ever heard of”, SUGAR have I got a case to share with him !!!
I’ve got one where the paternity and related frauds were actually AIDED and ABETTED by damnable officers of the court !!!
soboski@bellsouth.net
What kind of Jerry Springer Crack Head is this woman? I hope she rotts in prison after she gets convicted of all that she has done. I am relieved for the man who she tried to destroy.
Officers of the Court? Really? Who are we kidding?
Remarkably, I recently have been advised by an individual of no other than a local bar association to
ignore “sword oaths and obligations†. . . “pay attention to your mortgage.”
I’m still wondering if I heard this correctly.
Relative to noted Judicial Activism:
A “board of governors” of another bar association to a given western state recently voted and proposed doing-away with certain PC-type requirements for licensure. Well, yes sir. . . eee, we can now all imagine the “shock and awe†of the board when the S. Ct. to the given western state refused adoption their proposal.
Hmmm . . . maybe one can hope that the program may incorporate concerns of the modern day activism for self-crafting/fabrication state “annuity guarantees” – via simple violations of liberty.
– just adad
his whole body ached, I tghouht maybe he was just feeling “buggy.” then Monday (yesterday) he woke up still with tummy ache, feverish and complaining of still having body aches. This morning he said he “still doesn’t feel right.”Doesn’t have diarrhea, but has had a bad tummy ache and not able to have a bowel movement in a few days….
My husband and I are deealing with a situaution right now with his x wife where she knowingly got did not tell either of us that the two girls that they have together are not biologically his. When this issue origionally came up we ignored it for the first few yrs that we came to know about one of his daughters and we didnt bring it up immediately because we did not feel as though it was something that should be harped on when all it was going to do was hurt everyone involved. BBut for somereason the mother decided that she was going to tell the kids herself that he was not their biological father. I do not know what the hell she was thinking when she knew damn well that we were going to find out about it eventually. she was really starting to exhibit really paranoid behaviour whenever we had the kids and they were exhibiting really bizarre behaviour as well. She kept wanting to get them back as soon as possible every stime we had them and we could tell by the way that they were acting that she had done something to mess with thier relationship with their dad. That is the part that we are the most upset about. She used this information to hurt everyone because of her own personal hangups and didnt give a damn what it did to anyone else. We know and are fully aware that my husband will have to continue to pay child support and we were not or are not expecting anything any different. We will make that very clear to the judge when this goes to court. We want him to know that there has been a significant amount of damage done by this person and her decision to tell the kids this information without letting us know anything before she did this. We are most angry about what it has done to the kids. And not just the two children in question but the two kids that him and I have together as well. Cps just took my kids into custody because she has been having us harrassed and has been making our lives hell eversince we found out this information and we know that she is trying ot intimidate us into keeping quiet and trying to make us drop the matter altogether so that she wont have to face and type of fines or any kind of public humiliation for being so shady and for lying to decent ppl about the skeletons that she has hidden in her closet. we dont care about the money, money is not the reason at all, that is the furthest thing from our conscience right now. We want her to answer for all the lies and damage that she has done knowingly and not without some form of answering on her part.
I have been paying my child support since 1988 and have paid this off three times
North Carolina keeps finding another way to keep adding more to the support
Than I owe, my son and I keep in touch a couple times a week every week
He lives in Rocky Mount NC I live in Idaho Falls Id. He has brought his family and my two grand kids
To Idaho several times and I have gone to NC several times to visit also, point I am getting at is we get along very well he is a good kid, at this time he is 26 years of age, Belinda Harper Justin’s mother abandoned
the boys at the age of 6 years old, due to a bad drug problem, so they went to there Grand Mothers to live
I have never seen any paper work on Justin being put into a foster home, and there isn’t
Any thing in my paper work stating a update on foster care,
I have paid my child support off 3 times now, now North Carolina is saying that I owe 1790, more I have kept all my paper work from day one by my calculations I have now over paid about 2330.00, can NC just keep adding it on and on
Because the kids were put into a foster home, there was no foster home they went to there Grand
Mothers home to live, then to an aunt’s home to live. If I would have known that Belinda
Had abandoned Justin I would have Taking him into my home, nobody contacted me what so ever.
There was never anything said to me about this until now that they were in a foster home
And after talking to my son he has made it clear that they were never in a foster home
Is there anything I can do to put a stop to any of this?
Diale Davis
what can I do