Crime · South Lake Tahoe, CA
Former South Lake Tahoe Mayor Wallace Pleads Not Guilty; Change-of-Plea Hearing Oct. 29
Former South Lake Tahoe Mayor Tamara Wallace entered a not guilty plea at her federal arraignment before Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn K. Delaney in Sacramento on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, at 2 p.m. Wallace faces one count of felony wire fraud for allegedly embezzling nearly $390,000 from Lake Tahoe Community Presbyterian Church between April 2019 and September 2025 while serving as its bookkeeper, carrying a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison. She waived her right to a grand jury indictment, and a change-of-plea hearing before Judge Troy L. Nunley is set for 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 29. Wallace publicly confessed to the embezzlement in an Oct. 5, 2025 letter published in the Tahoe Daily Tribune and resigned as mayor one week later.