Tarrant County District Clerk Tom Wilder denies the claims and says his office will “vigorously defend against them.”
TARRANT COUNTY, Texas — A resident is suing in a bid to oust Tarrant County District Clerk Tom Wilder from his job, alleging “purging” of documents in a court case.
The Tarrant County resident, identified in the lawsuit filed this week as Conghua “Arnold” Yan, alleges in the lawsuit that the Tarrant County District Clerk’s Office “intentionally destroyed, concealed, removed, or otherwise impaired the verity, legibility, or availability” of court documents in his family court case when the case was transferred and reassigned from one court to another. Wilder denies the claims.
“To the best of Plaintiff’s knowledge and belief, in or around May 2025, Defendant Wilder, the Tarrant County District Clerk and the sole custodian of court records, either personally or through his staff, intentionally caused the purging of about thirty (30) docket entries from the case file,” the lawsuit alleges.
As a result, Yan is seeking a jury trial in the case to have “Wilder permanently removed from public office as the Tarrant County District Clerk due to official misconduct,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges the Tarrant County District Clerk’s office retroactively restored most of the filings after the matter was brought to the office’s attention in June, but at least two filings remain missing.
Wilder, in a statement to WFAA, denied the claims made in the lawsuit and said his office will “vigorously defend against them.”
“There is no merit to these claims, and we will vigorously defend against them,” Wilder said.
The Tarrant County District Clerk’s office oversees most of the business operations for the county’s courts, including management of records and money for court fees and fines collected. The office saw 66,000 new cases filed last year, according to an April newsletter.
Wilder was first elected to the post in 1995. He was last re-elected in 2022 and his current four-year term ends in 2026.
As KERA reported, the case comes after Wilder said in an April newsletter that the Tarrant County District Clerk’s office is working to replace the county’s case management system, initially build in the 1980s.
Great Job & the Team @ WFAA RSS Feed: news Source link for sharing this story.
