Updated at 9:40 a.m. Saturday: Revised to include comments from the constable.

A Dallas County constable announced her resignation Friday, months after her peace-officer license was suspended.

Constable Beth Villarreal of Precinct 5 wrote in a letter that she was resigning “under pressure and threat of a lawsuit, which would otherwise be placed on the backs of taxpayers.”

The lawsuit was filed last week by the state of Texas at the request of County Commissioner Elba Garcia, whose district overlaps with Villarreal's precinct. The complaint asked a Dallas County court to boot Villarreal from office based on a state law that requires a constable to maintain a permanent license.

“Despite having the support of the great people of Dallas County, it does not suffice in this negatively charged political atmosphere driven by elected colleagues who prevent me from completing my full four-year term, which is due to expire in 90 days,” Villarreal wrote.

Villarreal’s resignation will take effect Oct. 12.

Constable Beth Villareal has resigned stating she desires to make resignation effective Oct 12. ⁦@DallasCountyTx⁩ will move quickly to appoint her successor. I’ll support Michael Orozco who the voters. chose in the primary and who would replace Villareal Jan 1 regardless. pic.twitter.com/9ZTnvG9ho4 — Judge Clay Jenkins (@JudgeClayJ) September 29, 2018

If Villarreal had lost the lawsuit, she could’ve had to pay damages and legal fees for the state.

Garcia, who like Villarreal is a Democrat, said the constable was right to quit rather than continue to draw a paycheck — constables make $124,000 a year — for the next three months.

“This has nothing to do with politics,” she said Friday. “Under the Texas law, she’s no longer qualified to be a constable because she lost her license.”

Villarreal, who served in the elected law enforcement job for eight years, said in an email that her "servanthood and dedication to the community (especially to the Latino community) speaks for itself."

"All you have to do is look around and ask," she wrote. "You'll hear the echoes of my voice and see the fingerprints of my heart everywhere."

Her job as a constable was primarily to serve court papers and guard justice-of-the-peace courtrooms. Constables can also arrest lawbreakers and issue traffic tickets.

But she wasn’t able to fulfill those duties since June when a state agency suspended her license for a year after officials said that she had made several false statements about a deputy’s paperwork.

Villarreal fired the deputy in 2012 and gave him a “dishonorable discharge.” The deputy fought that designation, and a state administrative judge ordered Villarreal in early 2014 to change his papers to reflect an “honorable discharge,” according to court records.

By late 2015, the change had not been made, and the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement reprimanded Villarreal. She appeared before the agency in 2016 to ask that the reprimand be rescinded and made four false statements to officials, according to court records.

The commission then suspended her license and ordered that she take an ethics course, records show.

County Judge Clay Jenkins, who presides over the Commissioners Court, said it has the choice to appoint a successor to finish Villarreal’s term or to leave the position vacant until the winner of the November election takes office in January.

Jenkins said he favors appointing the Democratic nominee, Michael Orozco, to finish Villarreal’s term. Orozco is running unopposed.

“There’s currently a lack of leadership there, and that needs to be addressed,” Jenkins said.

The Commissioners Court has been faced with such a choice before. Villarreal herself was appointed by commissioners in 2010 to serve the remainder of a constable's term after he resigned amid a special prosecutor's investigation of possible bribery. Villarreal went on to win the seat in an election later that year.