Gray County is pleased to announce Leslie Timmons as the new District Attorney, appointed by the governor to take Franklin McDonough’s seat as he too will begin his new journey as 223rd District Judge in January of next year following Judge Phil Vanderpool’s retirement.
Coming straight from the heart of the Texas panhandle, Leslie has an impressive background as an attorney, and most recently, County Attorney in Wheeler. She brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, and a passion for justice to the five counties she will now serve.
Leslie grew up in the small rural town of Samnorwood, TX south of Shamrock, graduating from high school and heading straight to Texas Tech where she would focus her studies on agriculture economics and finance. She graduated before she turned 21, and deciding that she wanted to take a different career path, went back to school-this time in law.
While many of those working in the field of law, whether it be police officers or attorneys, tend to come from a long familial line of law enforcement, Leslie and her brothers did not, but in a unique twist, all three chose that career path.
“I was looking at jobs and thinking, ‘I am literally going to be working for the rest of my life,’ and I always thought about going to law school,” she said. “Neither one of my parents were law enforcement and neither were my grandparents, but both my brothers and I are all in law enforcement. My youngest brother works for DPS as a polygraph analyst, and my other brother is a game warden. So all three of us went out and got into law enforcement.”
Leslie would go back to school to earn her degree, and upon graduation, she was immediately offered a job as Assistant County Attorney in Hemphill County, and it was then she would also start her private practice.
With her time as Assistant County Attorney nearing its end and a desire to really come into her own, she was offered a job as a Juvenile Probation Officer by then-Chief Juvenile Probation Officer Kenneth Martindale, allowing her the freedom to not only take on a new role, but to also focus more heavily on her own private practice.
“I knew I was about to step out on my own and I think I was going to be able to do both of the jobs, scheduling appointments in my private practice around the duties of the Juvenile Probation Officer. And a side note on Kenneth-he pretty much raised me. He was my very first basketball coach, my principal, my superintendent, and coached me for pee-wee ball in first grade and all the way through my junior year. So it was like going to work for my dad in a way. I loved working with him.”
She would work in that capacity for nine months before meeting the love of her life and moving to Roberts County. Due to the resignation of then-County Attorney Rick Roach and there not being another attorney in the area except for Leslie, she filed for the seat and ultimately landed the role, serving as County Attorney until the end of 2011, serving nearly 12 years total.
Moving back to Wheeler County to be closer to her mother, Leslie admits that she had no intention of running for County Attorney there, but ended up trying a DWI 2nd case to a jury as County Attorney pro tem, and because of her impressive skill in the courtroom and ultimately winning the case, she was pursuaded to run for County Attorney in the next election. Leslie would win the seat and serve for over four terms before being appointed as 31st and 223rd District Attorney by Governor Abbott.
But her decision to apply for the role wasn’t an easy one.
“I knew that Franklin had resigned to run for District Judge, and I really didn’t give it a lot of thought initially. I think my husband probably gave it more thought than I did,” she laughed. “We began discussing it and he kept telling me that I really should apply for the position. But I argued with him, gave him all the reasons why I didn’t think it was a good idea. I loved my job in Wheeler County. I had been there for so long and loved working with the law enforcement there and loved working with the other elected officials. And I think there was a little bit of guilt there because I felt like I was abandoning that role. I was elected by the voters and I had been doing the job. But I thought more about it and prayed about it for a month, and I just kept telling God, ‘if this is where you want me and this is where you’re calling me to, you’re going to have to convice me!’ After a while, it became pretty clear that this was the direction I needed to go.”
Leslie would formally apply for the role in January of this year, and she admits that she was in no hurry to hear back due to the utmost respect she has for Franklin and the work he’s done.
“I didn’t expect any action from them until after the primary. My entire view on this was there is no problem leaving Franklin where he is. He’s been in this office and has had no issue running this office. I wasn’t anxious about the process.”
On April 10, she would be contacted for an interview down in Austin. The interview was intense to say the least, the panel wanting to ensure that whoever they chose for the position could handle whatever was thrown at them. And needless to say, Leslie could.
“I went in there with the attitude of if I am appointed, I want it to be on my own merits, and has nothing to do with any other person who applied. I want them to appoint me because they felt like I was the best choice. If they did appoint me, it was because I was called into this, and if they didn’t, then I was completely fine with that too. Just as long as there was a qualified person in this position.”
On May 6, Leslie was contacted and told the good news. Since then, she has hit the ground running in making a smooth transition with the help of Franklin, and although this will be quite the change for her, she’s ready.
“I am ready to be in the courtroom more, absolutely. The roles are completely different. There is some civil side to what the County Attorney does as far as local government code, roads, elections, and all of those things that are civil, whereas I am primarily now just dealing with the criminal side of it. That I was absolutely ready for. There is obviously the case load increase, and there’s really just a lot to do. I am stepping into cases that are set for trial, cases that have been indicted, and that was one of the reasons why Franklin and I have firmed up plans as to how all of this was going to work. We wanted this to be a completely seamless transition as much as it could be.”
With the District Attorney handling felony cases, some dealing with things the general public should never have to hear or see, it’s hard to imagine diving headfirst into that world, but throughout her career, Leslie has had the extraordinary ability to put any emotion aside and fulfill her duties in a respectable and professional manner. And there’s a reason why.
“I have been a paramedic for 20 years. The very first felony jury trial that I ever had was actually in Gray County in May of 2000. The week before trial during witness prep, we were interviewing them and going through their statements, and one of the witnesses that I was responsible for was the first paramedic on scene. There were four victims in an intoxication crash, and he is having to go through each person in an overview as he is on scene. I’m getting a description of injuries of him for the patients, but he might as well had been speaking Greek. I had no idea. He was talking about a traumatic brain injury and the patient was posturing, and I’m just like ‘whoa, wait a minute, what does all this mean?’ So I stepped away from that trial and thought, ‘okay, if I’m doing this as a career, I need to be able to read medical records and be able to talk intelligently to medical personnel. So I went to the then-DA at the time and asked if they knew of any medical classes or anything I could take. He said there was school in Chicago that was a week-long and that it was probably my best bet. At the time I had an 8-month old and I was not leaving him for a week, so I didn’t think anything more about it. A couple of years later, there was an EMT course and at that time I had new-born, so there was no way I was signing up. Then four years after that, they are having a class in Canadian. A close personal friend of mine had heard me say that I needed to know what certain medical terminology meant, so he signed me up without really asking me and brought me the books.”
Because of her willingness to learn, and because of having children at home and knowing anything can happen, she completed her education, got the training, and became licensed. While still practicing law, she would also work here in Pampa and Wheeler as a paramedic and as a volunteer in Miami, working full-time during Covid while court was shut down.
“I can still remember that case and there are pictures from that wreck that I can still see in my head, and that has been 26 years ago. You deal with it-you compartmentalize those feelings, and it’s taken me a while to be able to do that. But trying to push it aside, it will come back to you eventually. I’m not saying there’s not a touch of PTSD there, but there definitely was after Covid. But as long as I’m able to read, write, and sit through class, I will not let that certification go because I worked too hard for it.”
Throughout her career, Leslie has been in the service of others, putting them before herself and working hard to seek the justice every victim deserves, and that unwavering dedication is what has brought her here today-in this role, gracing us with her presence.
“Everything I have done has led me to this point, and it’s funny because I think I was only really able to see that within the last few months because there have been things that have just fallen into place.”
“It’s an honor to be appointed. I am here to serve. I am here to serve the voters, I am here to serve the tax payers. I think pretty much everything I have done in my life has been in a position of service. This is not about me, this is not about me feeling special because I was appointed. It is about doing the job and it is about seeking justice for the victims.”
