SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Tamara Wallace, the former mayor of South Lake Tahoe who admitted to embezzling from the Lake Tahoe Community Presbyterian Church, had her first day in court on Tuesday, October 13.
Before Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn K. Delaney in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento, Wallace agreed to a waiver of indictment, meaning she waived her right to have her case heard by a grand jury. She pleaded not guilty as expected and will return in two weeks for a change of plea.
In October 2025, Wallace hired criminal defense attorney and former judge Steven C. Bailey to represent her, and he was with her in court Tuesday along with her husband Duane Wallace.
It has been just over one year since Wallace admitted to the theft in a letter to South Tahoe Now. As with financial crimes, the investigation takes months, or in some cases years, to thoroughly follow the cyber trail. The South Lake Tahoe Police Department, El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were all involved in the case.
District Attorney Vern Pierson said he was going after federal charges as he wanted Wallace, who was in a position of public trust and accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from a church, to face a consequence that should match the harm. He said California wouldn’t have held to that punishment.
“We are grateful to the United States Attorney’s Office and the FBI for taking this case, and we will continue to work closely with our federal partners so that cases that call for real accountability can be brought where real accountability is available,” said Pierson.
In court documents, charges say the Presbyterian Church gave Wallace significant independence in how to carry out her duties with little oversight. For example, she was the only one with access to the church’s digital financial records for most of her time working as their bookkeeper.
According to the charges, “Beginning no later than April 2019 and continuing through in or about September 2025, in the State and Eastern District of California and elsewhere, Wallace knowingly devised, intended to devise, participated in, and executed a material scheme and artifice to defraud and to obtain money and property by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, promises, omissions, and the concealment of material facts. The purpose of the scheme and artifice to defraud was for Wallace to unlawfully enrich herself by embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from Church 1 [the Presbyterian church].”
From the United States of America versus Tamara Le Ann Wallace, Case Number 2:26-cr-0163 TLN, 18 U.S.C. § 1343 – Wire Fraud (1 count):
In furtherance of the scheme and artifice to defraud, WALLACE employed, among others, the following manner and means:
In or around April 2019, at the latest, WALLACE began embezzling funds from Church 1 in multiple ways. WALLACE wrote checks from Church 1’s bank account to herself. She disguised the payments as purported reimbursements for expenses she personally paid on behalf of Church 1 when, in fact, she never incurred such expenses. The purported reimbursement checks totaled approximately $360,000.
For example, on or about September 5, 2025, WALLACE wrote herself a $7,500 check from Church 1’s account and deposited it into an account she controlled. The description for the check that WALLACE put in Church’s 1 digital financial records merely said, “Reimb.”
WALLACE also made unauthorized electronic transfers from Church 1’s account to an account she controlled. The unauthorized transfers totaled approximately $31,000.
WALLACE concealed her theft from Church 1 by, among other things, making false entries in Church 1’s digital financial records.
In total, from at least in or around April 2019 through in or around September 2025, WALLACE embezzled almost $390,000 from Church 1. WALLACE used the stolen funds for various expenses, including travel expenses and to pay rent on her home.
WALLACE’s fraudulent scheme nearly caused Church 1 to shut down. Church 1 was forced to reduce programming and take out several loans to pay expenses. Church 1 also had to pay late fees and interest on overdue bills.
USE OF WIRE COMMUNICATIONS
On or about September 5, 2025, in the State and Eastern District of California, for the purpose of executing the aforementioned scheme and artifice to defraud, WALLACE did knowingly transmit and cause to be transmitted by means of wire communication in interstate and foreign commerce, certain writings, signs, and signals, specifically wire transmissions triggered by the deposit of a check from Church 1 into a bank account controlled by WALLACE.
All in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343.
The charges carry a maximum of up to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, or both fine and imprisonment. Then, a supervised release of up to three years.
Wallace has been released on her own recognizance,
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California said that when wire fraud charges are filed with them, it indicates that a defendant has waived their right to a grand jury and may at some point plead guilty. They said if Wallace enters a not guilty plea in her first court appearance, she may enter a change of plea at her next court date, Oct. 29. At that time, the public would learn what the penalty will be.
Wallace served on the South Lake Tahoe City Council from 2018 until she resigned in October 2025. She was mayor in 2020 and again in her final year.
