Linda Wallace Removed

Linda Wallace, the Rains County, Texas Judge, was indicted on felony witness tampering charges after a grand jury found she pressured a subordinate employee — Jennifer Patterson, chief clerk for the Rains County Justice of the Peace office — to withhold testimony in a case against Justice of the Peace Robert Jenkins Franklin, a fellow Rains County judge facing his own witness-tampering charges. Wallace was arrested July 2, 2025, with bond set at $10,000, and the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct suspended her without pay on July 8. She resigned from office following the indictment.

Wallace initially rejected a plea deal that would have dismissed her case in exchange for community service, maintaining she had done nothing wrong. On December 5, 2025, the charges against her were dismissed on the state's own motion; officials have not disclosed the reason for the dismissal. The related case against Franklin was separately resolved in November 2025 after he agreed to a year of deferred adjudication.