A former United States Postal Service Employee has been sentenced to six months in prison followed by six months of house arrest for destroying, hiding and delaying the delivery of at least 44,900 pieces of mail.
U.S. Chief Judge Joseph H. McKinley also ordered 34-year-old William "Brent" Morse of Dawson Springs, which is in western Kentucky, to pay $14,808.01 for losses suffered by residents and a local bank and for losses to two businesses which attempted to mail commercial circulars.
"He wanted to speed up his route," city police Capt. Craig Patterson, told The Courier-Journal. "I think he was lazy."
Morse admitted from March 2011 until March 30, 2013 he destroyed at least 1,000 pieces of mail and stored at least 44,900 pieces of mail at his deceased mother's home and at rented storage facilities in Dawson Springs.
The majority of the mail was meant for Dawson Springs. The recovered mail has since been delivered.
His lawyer told the paper that his client was going through a divorce and had to pick up his kids during the day.
"It's not that he was stealing anything from it," Patrick Bouldin, the federal public defender, told the paper. He told the paper that the missing mail only represented a fraction of the 1.2 million pieces of mail he'd deliver.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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