Lynette Montemayor Reprimanded Suspended

Lynette Montemayor, an associate municipal judge and city secretary for Escobares, Texas, was publicly reprimanded by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct for failing to cooperate with its own investigation into a felony indictment against her. A Starr County grand jury had indicted Montemayor in September 2021 on a third-degree felony charge of providing false information on an affidavit, alleging she falsely notarized an affidavit claiming an individual had sworn an oath before her on May 25, 2021. The Commission suspended her without pay in December 2021 while that criminal case proceeded. In July 2023, the Commission sent Montemayor a formal letter of inquiry about the indictment; she never responded. The Commission found her silence constituted "willful or persistent conduct that is clearly inconsistent" with her duties as a judge, and issued the public reprimand in February 2024 on that basis.