Shelly Barreras

My name is Shelly Barreras. I met Steve during Christmas of 1997. We married on July 12, 2002. Steve paid court-ordered child support for five years for a child that never existed. His ex-wife, Viola Trevino, a.k.a. Viola Barreras, obtained two fraudulent DNA tests through Mobile Blood Services with the help of their staff and Steve and Viola’s adult daughter Eve Barreras. Pamela Flores, the lab technician who tested Viola and a child, has since left the company. Steve told me that he was divorced with two grown children. In March 1999 Steve had dinner with Viola and their children, Adam and Eve, to tell them that he was seeing me, and Steve was informed by Viola that the paperwork was never filed, so they were not actually divorced. He stopped paying alimony of $600.00 a month and re-filed, as did she. Shortly thereafter all his divorce paperwork and the majority of his alimony receipts went missing.

We were at Steve’s apartment on May 15, 1999 when Viola called, and when Steve told her that I was there, she became verbally abusive, so he hung up on her. She called back immediately and started screaming at him again, so he hung up once again. About 20 minutes later she appeared at the apartment, screamed at us about how she owned him as long as they were still married. She broke a window, knocked over his motorcycle and threatened my life. Steve called 911 and she tried several times to get past the officers to “kick the whore’s ass”. She was eventually arrested for domestic violence and criminal damage. Those charges were later dismissed because of a letter she created, had Steve sign, had it notarized and then altered it after the fact, it was very obvious.

Their divorce hearing (without children involved) was first scheduled before Judge Angela Jewell. Special Commissioner Stan Whitaker found a document in Steve’s possession that was determined to be a forgery by Viola on Judge Jewell’s letterhead. It had been sent to Steve via mail in a court envelope. The Judge’s clerk told me that Judge Jewell had to recuse herself as they were going to prosecute Viola, yet nothing ever happened. She had also sent Steve an altered document from Judge Charles Barnhardt’s chambers. (attached) The divorce case then went before Judge Deborah Davis-Walker, the Presiding Judge of Family Court. Their divorce was finalized on August 26, 1999 before Judge Walker. Before signing the final decree, Judge Walker noticed that the amount of spousal support had been changed from $300.00 to $800.00, Viola admitted to doing this and Judge Walker then ordered Steve to pay the $300.00. Once the decree was signed, Viola yanked it out of the Judge’s hand, and by the time it was filed with the clerk downstairs, she had added her own comments to it.

On August 27, 1999 Viola appeared before Judge Calvin Shields, Rio Rancho Municipal Court, for disorderly conduct/telephone harassment. The case was stayed, as she has three more charges of the same against her scheduled for another hearing before Rio Rancho Judge Judith Olean. Viola appeared before Judge Barnhardt on September 2, 1999 for her D.V. charge of May 15, the hearing was rescheduled for October 20. On September 7, 1999 she appeared before Special Commissioner Charles Sanchez for the restraining order Steve requested in Sandoval County, which was approved as a mutual order. We started receiving lots of hang-up phone calls, the police were informed, and we kept great documentation. Viola was charged with four counts of telephone harassment and disorderly conduct. All charges were subsequently dismissed due to a jurisdictional issue, the calls originated from Albuquerque and not Rio Rancho.

We were in court again on October 20, 1999 before Judge Barnhardt, and when Viola left the court room with their daughter Eve, she loudly stated that she was pregnant with Steve’s child and she didn’t want him to have anything to do with the baby. In late October, Steve hired attorney William Tryon, to get a stop date of September 2000 for the spousal support. During this proceeding on December 3, 1999 is when Viola announced to the court that she had a daughter, Stephanie Renee, on September 3, 1999, just eight days after their divorce was final. Judge Walker mentioned that she did not look pregnant at the August 26 hearing and Viola told her that she doesn’t show at all. On December 11, she was then ordered to get paternity testing done as well as to get a birth certificate to Steve or Bill Tryon by December 15, which never happened. Bill Tryon and Judge Walker walked out together and he later told me she had asked “how can she possibly pull this off as there is no way she had a baby.”

On December 19, 1999, Viola had a child baptized at The Church of Saint Augustine on Isleta Pueblo, they do not require a birth certificate there. Steve’s brother Claude and his wife Georgia were the sponsors. Viola obtained a baptismal certificate which she then used to apply for a Social Security card for “Stephanie Renee Barreras Y Trevino”. She then applied for a Medicaid card for “Stephanie”.

Steve was tested January 12, 2000 at Mobile Blood Service’s 4th St. office by owner David Quintana. I made a point of letting him know repeatedly of Viola’s propensity toward deception and forgery, his exact words were, “Do you really think I would risk my business for a $500.00 DNA test?” Viola and a child were tested at her home on January 2, 2000 by Pamela Flores. The result was a 99.999% probability. In a hearing on April 18, 2000, Steve was ordered to pay child support in the amount of $100.00 per month as well as the $300.00 in alimony. In a hearing on December 13, 2000, Steve submitted post vasectomy testing performed by SED Labs on May 12, 2000 showing he had a zero sperm count. He’d had a vasectomy on February 8, 1998 at Lovelace Hospital. Viola had a tubal ligation immediately after their daughter Eve was born on September 11, 1979. Judge Walker, knowing full well that Viola had already established a pattern of deceit, looked at this report, chuckled and handed it back to Bill Tryon saying, “DNA doesn’t lie.” The court ordered a second paternity test to be set up by Bill Tryon.

On June 20, 2000, Bill Tryon took Viola’s deposition at his office. Viola said she was four or five months pregnant when they divorced. She stated she knew David Quintana from her job at Carey Limousine. She also said Stephanie was born at St. Joseph Hospital, but she didn’t know who the doctor was, as she was supposed to have it in Colorado. She continually yelled and berated Steve and was very angry. She stormed out before the deposition was completed.

Mr. Tryon then referred them to the office of William Henderson, M.D., for the second paternity test. Steve complied on July 19, 2000, but Viola disobeyed the order, and after stalling for seven months, she again tested through Mobile Blood Services on February 9, 2001. Viola and a child were again tested at her home by Pamela Flores. The results were 99.997%. Judge Walker sent them to Special Master James Loughren for a hearing on March 19, 2001 where he recommended an increase to $723.00.00 per month child support as well as the $300.00 in alimony. He also added $1800.00 plus 8.75% interest as arrears since according to Viola Steve had missed several payments. On April 18, 2001, Bill Tryon filed the second paternity test with Judge Walker, When the Judge asked Mr. Tryon if they acknowledged paternity, he told Steve to sit down and be quiet and then he said, “Well, Your Honor, with two tests now, yes, I suppose we do.” It was never entered into the record and Steve never signed anything to that effect.

Steve filed a motion to modify the previous order on May 9, 2001 pro se, as Bill Tryon had dropped him as a client without any warning at all. Steve could not give him more money at that point in time. Mr. Tryon did not even file for withdrawal, he just dropped out completely. On October 24, 2001, a hearing was held before Special Master Nan Nash. She recommended that child support be lowered to $200.00 per month, the usual $300.00 in alimony, but she added $5,485.00 in arrears due to Viola’s allegations of non-payment and added $50.00 per month towards judgement. In April 2002, the Child Support Enforcement Agency started garnishing Steve’s paycheck for $253.61 bi-weekly, they included the alimony as child support. The case was disposed for lack of prosecution on March 11, 2003.

I investigated this as much as I could until I got tired of running into brick walls and having people look at me like I was crazy - after all, “DNA doesn’t lie.” In October 2002, Steve and I went to Santa Fe to Vital Statistics to do a birth search and received a letter stating there was no such birth on record. Our 2003 income tax refund for $1,048.00 was intercepted. Viola had claimed the child on her taxes in at least 1999. In 2003, I hired private investigator Bill Rehm to help prove the child’s non-existence.

All throughout this ordeal I had sent letters and emails, made calls to anyone and everyone, trying to get someone to believe me. In March 2005, we received a very rude letter from Jeremy Toulouse at CSED. Finally I got a hit. In March 2005 I received an email reply from John Blake, investigative producer for KOB TV Channel 4 and he talked to his investigative reporter, Mark Horner. They spent about six months investigating our claims and believed. They finally came out and interviewed us for the news spot that they planned to air in November. In the interim, I retained attorney Robert Perry. Rob filed a motion to reopen the case on September 24, 2005, and Mark Horner couldn’t hang onto to it, so the “Where’s The Baby” piece aired on KOB Eyewitness News 4 at 10 PM. On October 10, we received a letter from CSED that they were closing the case without further investigation and that all arrears would be wiped out and then reported to the credit agencies. I went down to CSED to make sure this was in fact true and Jeremy Toulouse told me the case had been set to close but “since KOB ran the story they might have to rethink that decision.” I tape recorded this conversation, Richar’ Farr of KrightsRadio has the tape.

At a hearing on December 2, 2004, Civil Court Judge Linda M. Vanzi ordered Viola to produce the child by 9:30 AM on December 6. During the hearing, Viola produced a birth certificate dated October 27, 2004. It was given to her by Vital Statistics in Santa Fe even after their fraud department had twice been alerted to her attempted fraud. She produced a child to the court clinic at noon on December 6, but it was a two year old child she had grabbed off the street earlier. She was taken into custody and had an immediate hearing in Judge Vanzi’s courtroom. This is when the Judge ruled that there was no child named Stephanie Renee Trevino. On March 31, 2005, Viola told the court that she had given the child to Steve and I and that we had made her do all this, and she was ordered to repay us approximately 26,000.00. She said she will never pay us a dime.

Note: on birth registration she filled out in 2001 she named Senator (Dr.) Steve Komadina as the delivering physician. He was not a Senator at that time.

Quote from the Governor on our piece, “Baby, What a Scam” on CNN’s News Night with Aaron Brown: “GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), NEW MEXICO: This is the most egregious example of a bureaucracy abuse and negligence that I've ever heard of.”

Video clip of Shelly Barreras' billboard protest on New Mexico's Channel 13 News

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