SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Former Mayor Tamara Wallace remains out of custody and entered the standard plea of not guilty at her federal arraignment in Sacramento Tuesday afternoon. 

She will have the opportunity to plead guilty in two weeks at her change‑of‑plea hearing, set for Oct. 29. 

Wallace faces up to 20 years in prison for embezzling nearly $390,000 from a church in South Lake Tahoe. The U.S. Attorney’s Office charged her with one count of felony wire fraud on Sept. 15, following a federal investigation.

Wallace appeared before Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn K. Delaney in Sacramento at 2 p.m. on Tuesday. 

Wallace waived her right to a grand jury indictment at the arraignment, according to South Tahoe Now, which a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office previously said indicates she “may at some point plead guilty.”

Upon confirming Wallace’s plea, Zobair Soleiman, executive assistant for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said not guilty is “the standard plea at an arraignment even when a later guilty plea is anticipated.” 

The purpose of the initial not guilty plea is to retain the defendant’s rights and gain access to the prosecution’s evidence to review the case, according to the Federal Community Defender Eastern District of Michigan.

The El Dorado County District Attorney handed Wallace’s case to federal investigators last year after deciding the potential sentence in California’s court system would be too lenient.

From April 2019 until September 2025, Wallace wrote herself checks while she was Lake Tahoe Community Presbyterian Church’s bookkeeper, which totaled $360,000 and completed unauthorized electronic transfers, which totaled $31,000, according to the U.S. attorney’s indictment.

On Oct. 5, 2025, Wallace published a letter in the Tahoe Daily Tribune confessing to embezzling from the Presbyterian church. She resigned from her position as mayor a week later.

The change of plea hearing will be before Troy L. Nunley at 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 29, a spokesperson previously said.