Inside the remarkable, tragic life of Texas prosecutor accused of cheating with Eva Longorias NBA husband

Erin Benavides, the former wife of ex-NBA star Brent Barry, could have let a bombshell celebrity scandal define her life. Instead, she left the tabloid firestorm behind her to build a career prosecuting gangbangers and advocating for society’s most vulnerable kids — valuable work she continued largely out of the public eye until she was tragically found dead by suicide last month.For those who knew Benavides, her legacy has little to do with “Desperate Housewives” star Eva Longoria’s explosive 2010 allegations that she had an “emotional affair” with the actress’s then-husband, NBA Hall of Famer Tony Parker. Instead, they remember a woman whose commitment to helping children endured even as her own personal life became tabloid fodder.“Although she had something erupt in her life that seemed bigger and took a lot of attention away from what she did, she still regained her focus and went back to helping children,” said Yolanda Valenzuela, a nonprofit executive who worked alongside Benavides on the Bexar County Child Welfare Board when the scandal broke, to The Post. When Longoria’s allegations thrust Benavides – then known as Erin Barry – into the national spotlight, she stepped away from her role on the welfare board.“I think because she had to focus on her personal life at that time, she chose to leave,” Valenzuela said of Benavides, who died at 54 from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound inside her husband’s Port Aransas, Texas, home. “We didn’t make her resign, by no means.She made that choice because she had other things to focus on in her life,” Valenzuela recalled, referring to Benavides’ divorce from Barry and also the care needed to raise their two sons, Quin and Cade. The boys are now 26 and 20 years old, respectively.But Benavides’ departure from the board was far from the end of her work with children. She had already spent years advocating for at-risk youth, a passion that led her to represent Bexar Cou...