Agency Culpable in Child Support Scam
Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 12:51 pm
Congratulations to our esteemed moderator on his new position......Hope all goes well.......will do my best to stay within the boundaries of good taste and decorum that these fora are known for.......
Now, back to the chase......
I saw this article recently and it might interest some of you (while the rest of us urge us to ignore it as quickly as possible)......
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,141525,00.html
Now, back to the chase......
I saw this article recently and it might interest some of you (while the rest of us urge us to ignore it as quickly as possible)......
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,141525,00.html
So this guy has to pay child support for years for a child he never had (and he can prove it), but the child welfare system refuses to even listen to him........LOL ..........who cares, he is just another one of those MEN........we can blame gravity on men and we can blame anythign and evrything on men, even and especially when it is the men themselves who are getting hurt......MEN are always to blame, even when they are the victims (which they never are and even if men were victims from time to time, it aint that bad, so we can go back to ignoring the plight of men, thanks).......Last week, Viola Trevino carried her 5-year-old "daughter" into an Albuquerque court to satisfy a judge’s demand to produce the child.
One: Trevino had kidnapped the child moments before to pass off as her daughter. Two: the "real" daughter never existed. Three: the "father" and ex-husband Steve Barreras had paid $20,000 in child support. Four: the system finally noticed Trevino was lying.
The system is broken. In recent years, heartbreaking stories from every state have flooded the media. Often they focus on the plight of children who are abused or neglected by those assigned to protect them. But just as often they highlight the abuse of parents — especially non-custodial fathers — who are processed as paperwork, not people.
His petition for a restraining order was denied. Evidence that his vasectomy, conducted a year prior to the child’s "birth," had left him with a zero sperm count, was ignored. Phoning and writing to New Mexico’s child support agency to have them verify his daughter’s non-existence resulted in a letter. The child enforcement worker stated, "your daughter does exist, as I am sure you already knew."
Reports from an investigative journalist at KOBTV, Albuquerque, finally brought enough pressure to bear that Trevino was ordered to produce the child in court. On the day of her hearing, Trevino went to a mall, where she convinced a grandmother and her 2-year-old granddaughter that they should all go to see Santa Claus. Instead, Trevino took them to the courthouse, snatched the girl, and tried to pass her off as the missing daughter.
A partial explanation is that the child welfare system seems to automatically favor the claims of custodial mothers over non-custodial fathers.
But why did the child support enforcement system not follow up despite complaints? Farr suggests an answer: "[S]ome officials see child support agencies as revenue-generating agencies. States make money off the collection of child support while the taxpayers lose money at the federal level overall. Too often, this money-mindedness does not give incentives for agencies to do the right thing for children and families."