Pateras

FACTS

Armenta and Pateras began their relationship in 2012. Pateras gave birth to their child M.A. in 2014. Armenta and Pateras did not marry. They both worked at the Chumash Casino Resort. They lived together until 2017, when they separated, and Pateras moved in with her parents. They entered an initial “child custody and support” agreement in 2017. Armenta is a “Chumash descendent” who works at the Chumash tribal office in “future planning.” He earns $114,000 a year in salary. He also receives $5,000 a month from the Chumash tribe’s general welfare program. Pateras filed a petition and request for order in the trial court. In August 2023, she filed a request that Armenta pay her child support and attorney fees. On October 12, 2023, the court ordered Armenta to pay $448 a month for “temporary child support” and $2,000 in attorney fees. The trial court held subsequent hearings on November 15 and December 12, 2023. At the December hearing, the court adopted Pateras’s DissoMaster calculations without prejudice. At a later hearing, the court heard arguments from counsel on whether the payments Armenta received from the Chumash tribe could be considered as income in determining his…