07/22/2026
in the The Rio Grande Valley❗️
🚨 A Criminal Justice major at UTRGV pretended to be a naive “good girl” from a good family to gain the trust of her employers—and steal over $54k!
Valerie Marie Villarreal, 22, of Alton, Texas was finally caught earlier this month—her criminal enterprise lasted about half a year. Instead of showing remorse for the harm she caused, she was more concerned about facing the consequences of her actions.
🚨 THE SCHEME 🚨
Valerie told clients they were only accepting cash and to come in when everyone else was out to lunch—she even declined a paid vacation with the rest of the staff so she could be the only one in the office. She then collected the cash payments, gave them a receipt forging the attorney’s signature, and hid the copies of the receipts and files.
She became so confident that she even began signing up new clients without the attorney’s knowledge and filing petitions under the attorney’s name. Eventually, the UTPA student figured out the clients would eventually mention they already paid, so she had a brilliant idea—She cancelled attorney-client appointments, court hearings and mediations.
One would expect that the first time she had to cancel an appointment or other important dates, she would start fearing that she might get caught… but not Valerie. Valerie was so confident of her criminal and manipulation skills that she signed up new clients herself—she even filed petitions under the attorney’s name without the attorney’s knowledge.
🚨 OUT OF LUCK 🚨
Eventually, the attorney realized there were court hearings scheduled for people the attorney never met, and even cases the attorney doesn’t handle. Once they started looking, the full extent of Valerie’s deception was unveiled. A search of her office resulted in the discovery of the copy of the receipts and files she had hidden, as well as a tablet where she practiced the attorney’s signature.
Of course, Valerie denied it at first, but she later confessed—except, her crocodile tears and innocent-immature act didn’t work anymore.
🚨 NO SHAME 🚨
According to a source close to the investigation, Valerie stole $2,200 from the attorney the same day she asked for help to get her brother out of jail—that happened days before she was caught. She offered to make payments after she was caught, but claimed she had no money left from the $2,200 she had stolen days earlier.
To add insult to injury, after posting a combined $7,500 bail, she paid the busted page to remove her mugshot—with the money she stole.
Perhaps what’s most disturbing about the records we saw is that she doesn’t seem to have any remorse for the harm she caused to the attorney’s reputation, nor for jeopardizing their law license. Those clients have receipts proving they paid—the law office will have to refund the money or work their cases for free.
Even worse, Valerie seems to have no sense of the harm she caused to the people seeking legal representation and that had the misfortune of meeting her—whether it’s a criminal or civil matter, these are people’s lives she affected by hiding their files, cancelling appointments, court hearings, depositions, etc.
It seems that in Valerie’s mind, the only life affected by her actions is hers. She has shown no remorse—just fear that her future as an attorney will be ruined by having a criminal record and potentially going to prison for her crimes.
Her fate will now be decided by the criminal justice system in Hidalgo county—she faces up to TEN years in prison.
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