18 U.S.C. § 1709

Theft of mail matter by officer or employee

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Whoever, being a Postal Service officer or employee, embezzles any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or any article or thing contained therein entrusted to him or which comes into his possession intended to be conveyed by mail, or carried or delivered by any carrier, messenger, agent, or other person employed in any department of the Postal Service, or forwarded through or delivered from any post office or station thereof established by authority of the Postmaster General or of the Postal Service; or steals, abstracts, or removes from any such letter, package, bag, or mail, any article or thing contained therein, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 188 cases (8 in the last 5 years), 1954–2025 · leading case: United States v. Denise Robertson
United States v. Denise Robertson (2018) ca9 · cites it 5× “ROBERTSON SUMMARY * Criminal Law The panel affirmed convictions for theft of mail by a postal employee in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1709 , and possession of stolen mail in violation of 18 U.”
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Jack Curtis COMER, Defendant-Appellant (1996) ca6 · cites it 5× “Counts One through Four charged him with unlawfully and willfully embezzling articles from registered mail pouches in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1709 . Count Five charged Comer and Hillman with the knowing and unlawful possession of five bonds which had been stolen from the mail,…”
United States v. Robert Leonard Lucarz (1970) ca9 · cites it 5× “18 U.S.C. § 1709 . We affirm. The record shows that at approximately 5:00 A.”
United States v. Leach (2005) ca10 · cites it 3× “Sherma Lee Leach (“Defendant”) pled guilty to theft of mail by a postal employee, a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1709 . After accepting Defendant’s plea and conducting a sentencing hearing, the district court *1101 sentenced Defendant to thirty-seven months’ imprisonment, followed…”
United States v. Erica Hill (1994) ca7 · cites it 5× “Count One of the indictment charged Hill with having embezzled a United States treasury check from the mail which had been entrusted to her as a postal employee for delivery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1709 . Count Two of the indictment charged Hill with having cashed a United…”
United States v. Jennifer Riccardi (2021) ca6 “§ 1708 ; stealing mail as a postal employee in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1709 ; and possessing 15 or more “unauthorized access devices” in violation of 18 U.”
United States v. Capers (2010) ca2 · cites it 2× “) Capers was indicted in March 2006, charged with one count of theft of mail matter by a postal employee, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1709 . He moved to suppress the inculpatory statements he made both before and after receiving the Miranda warning, and on March 30, 2007, the…”
United States v. Dominic Demarcus Steele (2018) ca4 · cites it 2× “GREGORY, Chief Judge: Dominic Steele was convicted of postal theft in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1709 . Relying on the victim's unsupported estimate of its replacement costs, the district court ordered Steele to pay $52,990 in restitution.”
United States v. Charles L. Lamb (1993) ca7 · cites it 3× “mail in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1709 . The district court sentenced Lamb to two months of home confinement followed by three years of probation as well as imposing a fine of $1,000 and ordering that he perform fifty hours of community service.”
United States v. Ronald Wynn (1988) ca7 · cites it 2× “Ronald Wynn appeals from his conviction on one count of embezzling a letter in the course of his job as a postal service employee, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1709 , 1 and one count of knowingly and without authority opening mail not directed to him, in violation of 18 U.”
United States v. Gonzales (2006) ca10 · cites it 4× “Introduction Defendanh-Appellant Juanita Gonzales, a former postal service employee, was charged in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado with two counts of embezzling, stealing, abstracting, or removing the contents of mail entrusted to her, in violation…”
United States v. Edward Duarte Garcia (1990) ca5 · cites it 3× “GRADY JOLLY, Circuit Judge: Edward Duarte Garcia was convicted on a guilty plea of theft of mail by a postal employee in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1709 . Garcia appeals his sentence, contending that the district court erred in departing upward from the applicable guideline range,…”
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