Proposed law would monitor deliverers
‘Udell’ act inspired by woman’s murder aims to protect customers
BOCA RATON – A new law could help ensure that the next time a deliveryman enters your home, he’s not a criminal.
On Tuesday, a bill filed in the Florida House adds unprecedented requirements to the hiring and employment of delivery service workers and potentially imposes penalties on retailers who subcontract those workers.
The “Evy Udell Public Safety Act” is named after Evelyn “Evy” Udell, a Boca Raton woman who police say was beaten, set on fire and killed by a 21-year-old delivery worker in August.
If passed, the law would require all delivery service companies to complete local and national criminal background checks for employees, and tell retailers they contract with if employees are arrested, convicted or awaiting trial for a number of offenses. They include: sexual misconduct, attempts or conspiracy to commit felonies in the second and third degree, assault, battery and domestic violence.
As part of the bill, large retailers must also explicitly tell customers whether the person who delivers to their home will be a subcontractor. Retailers will have to ensure subcontracted delivery workers have undergone required screening.
The bill applies only to a person or company who transports and unloads household goods as part of a delivery service. It excludes postal and package service work
ers, such as those who work for Amazon or UPS.
In the days before her fatal attack, Evelyn Udell had purchased a new washer and dryer from Best Buy to be delivered and installed by the company. However, the delivery was subcontracted out two times over and a delivery team from a small Miami company, X.M. Delivery Services, arrived instead.
Udell’s family filed a lawsuit against Best Buy and the two subcontractors. They also made an explicit call for legislation to address what they perceived as a lack of restrictions and regulation on the hiring of delivery service workers.
Nick Panagakis, an attorney for the family, said the bill is crucial because it requires retailers to be up front about who will enter the homes of customers after they sign off on a purchase of goods. Panagakis said Udell’s family has made it clear that Evelyn Udell went to Best Buy to buy her appliances because she trusted the company and believed a Best Buy employee would deliver her goods.
Jorge Luis Dupre Lachazo, the delivery worker accused of killing Udell, had been charged with a third-degree felony theft in 2018, according to Miami-Dade Court records. However, the charge was downgraded to a misdemeanor and was ultimately dismissed through a pretrial diversion program. Given the current language of the bill, it is possible that had it been law, Lachazo would have been barred from entering Udell’s home. The bill would have required Lachazo to undergo a background check before being hired; it remains unclear whether X.M. Delivery Services ever conducted such a check.
The bill was sponsored by Republican House Rep. Mike Caruso and Democratic State Sen. Kevin Rader. Neither immediately responded to requests for comment sent to their legislative offices.
In October 2019, Caruso said he first thought about the bill after learning about Udell’s death, as well as an incident in June 2019, where a Greenacres woman accused a City Furniture deliveryman of cornering her and molesting her.
Panagakis said the bill has gone through several iterations since then and that the Udell family has been involved in the process, although they have yet to see the final bill submitted to the House on Tuesday.
Stuart Grossman, a South Florida attorney who has defended hundreds of customers against retailers in his 47-year career, said the bill sets a precedent by holding companies criminally liable for who they allow into people’s homes.
The bill states that any company or employee who violates the proposed law could be charged with a third-degree felony. “That’s what gives this thing teeth,” Grossman said.