Letter of the law: Mailman sentenced
‘Time served’ for carrier who dumped missives in the trash
Nobody knows for sure what the motive was for a Hollywood letter carrier convicted of dumping hundreds of pieces of mail in the trash near his home, but a judge and prosecutors said Friday they suspect it was laziness.
In a defiant speech at his sentencing Friday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, John Henry Caddle Jr., 58, vehemently denied he ever failed to deliver the mail on his route.
“I delivered mail for 13 years without one discrepancy … Most [people] could set their clocks by the time I delivered their mail,” Caddle told the judge.
There were more than 30 trash cans along his lengthy Hollywood delivery route, he said, so why would he risk dumping it so close to his home in the city.
“Iwould be the biggest fool on Earth to do such a thing,” Caddle said.
Though he huffed loudly in court when the prosecution called him lazy, Caddle also complained bitterly about the amount of work involved in delivering mail to more than 700 residential and business addresses each day. He said his was one of the longest, most grueling routes and claimed his bosses wouldn’t help him out.
As for the witness who testified Caddle was seen trashing undelivered mail, and agents from the U.S. Postal Service’s inspector general’s office who found more than300 items of mail in the dumpster and 500 more pieces of mail in garbage bags on the patio at the front of Caddle’s apartment in August?
Caddle said they were either lying or it must have been another mail carrier who trashed mail from Caddle’s Hollywood delivery route.
Prosecutor Randy Katz said it was Caddle who lied repeatedly when he testified in his defense during his January trial and that Caddle was lying again at sentencing. Awitness reported seeing a uniformed mailman, who wore the same kind of white pith helmet that Caddle wore on his route, trashing mail, authorities said.
Prosecutors said witnesses also saw a man, who drove the same color andmodel of car as Caddle’s, dumping what they thought was mail on several other occasions.
Investigators said they found 17 pieces of first class mail, close to 150 Publix coupons mailers, election campaign mailers and other items in the garbage.
Jurors deliberated for hours before finding Caddle guilty of three federal charges of delaying and detaining mail that investigators pulled from the trash. The jury found him not guilty of one charge linked to the garbage bags of mail found on the patio in front of his apartment.
Katz recommended that Caddle should serve one year in federal prison for his crimes and for lying under oath on the witness stand. They said he previously admitted to investigators that he dumped the mail.
“The offense is very serious, you’re affecting people’s lives,” Katz said.
The prosecution also said that punishmentwould help deter other mail carriers who might be tempted. Before Caddle’s trial, local investigators said they received a couple of reports per month that mail carriers were dumping mail. Since his conviction, they said they haven’t received any such calls.
Assistant Federal Public Defender Jan Smith told the judge that Caddle’s conviction was based on circumstantial evidence. Caddle also gave a total of 38 years of public service in the U.S. Marines and the Postal Service and is a good father and grandfather, he said.
Caddle was fired from his mail carrier job in October, shortly after the mail was found.
The 87 days Caddle has been lockedupsince the verdict were sufficient punishment, Smith told the judge.
“Mr. Caddle has suffered and there is no need to continue that particular punishment,” Smith said. For someone like Caddle, one night in a jail is often sufficient to leave a lasting impression, Smith argued.
Senior U.S. District Judge James Cohn agreed the offenses were serious but he said that Caddle didn’t profit from the crimes, other than avoiding work: “His route had become too much for him.”
The judge said the 87 days Caddle already served in jail were sufficient punishment and would deter other potential offenders. Caddlewas released from jail after the hearing. He was also sentenced to three years of supervised release, which is similar to probation.