Saturday, June 06, 2009

Coach Accused of Rape May Sue APS

By Jessica Dyer
Copyright © 2009 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
          The former Cibola High School substitute teacher and wrestling coach relieved of his duties after being accused of raping a student is now exploring the possibility of suing Albuquerque Public Schools.
        Charges were never filed against Mike Barreras.
        A 16-year-old female student in 2007 claimed Barreras raped her in an office on the Cibola campus. After looking into the matter, the District Attorney's Office decided last year not to charge him. Pat Davis, spokesman for the DA's Office, declined to go into details why charges were not pursued.
        Barreras, 31, now works for Youth Development Inc. as a center specialist at Alameda Head Start. YDI is a nonprofit social services agency that focuses largely on youth services. Barreras also started his own junior wrestling club.
        He claims he tried to settle with the school district in 2008, but APS declined. Now he's contemplating a lawsuit in which he would sue the school district for about $150,000.
        "I just want what's rightfully mine," he said. "I probably could go for more. I'm not suing for half-a-million dollars. I'm not trying to get rich. I just feel that they owe it to me."
        John Miller, spokesman for the school district, said Barreras became at least temporarily ineligible to substitute teach after the allegations. And since substitutes are considered hourly employees at APS, they are paid only when they actually work.
        "He was not eligible for a classroom assignment, therefore he did not work and was therefore not paid," Miller said.
        Barreras had been what's called an "auto-sub" at Cibola from November 2006 to January 2007. An auto-sub is someone who shows up at a respective school every day and fills in for various absent teachers.
        He had previously been a full-time teacher at the school, working for three consecutive school years starting in the fall of 2003.
        The student made her claims against Barreras when he was a substitute teacher, although she said the incident occurred the previous year.
        Barreras has always denied the allegations.
        He was hired as the wrestling coach at Cibola in 2003. He coached multiple individual state placers while at Cibola and led the Cougars to a fifth-place state finish in 2006. Barreras was a four-time All-American wrestler at Adams State in Colorado and Central Oklahoma. He was also a New Mexico high school state champion for West Mesa.
        He was relieved of his duties midway through the 2006-07 wrestling season after the allegations. He said he never received his full coaching stipend for the year.
        Miller said coaches are considered hourly employees, so therefore are paid only for the time they work.
        Barreras said he went more than a year-and-a-half before he was able to find another job. Without an income, he turned to professional mixed-martial arts fighting to make ends meet. He said he lived with his grandmother to save rent and still only barely scraped by.
        Barreras has seven criminal charges on his record, most from the 1990s, according to court documents. Of those, most were dismissed, although he pleaded guilty to drunken driving last year.
        Barreras said he's made mistakes, but added, "I've never had anything ever on my record (for) any violence toward any female."
        Barreras said the rape allegations have been hard to overcome when applying for a job.
        He applied for the job as head wrestling coach at the new V. Sue Cleveland High School in Rio Rancho but was never interviewed.
        And he said the financial consequences continue to follow him.
        "I'm working on trying to buy a home right now, and there are some things I let slide (while unemployed), and it affected my credit, and now I'm saving money and trying to get my credit back to where it needs to be," Barreras said. "They don't look at how this has affected me. This is long term."
        Journal staff writer Hailey Heinz contributed to this report.
       

You also can send comments via our comment form