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Kingsport postal worker sentenced for theft

Published May 9th, 2007 | 0 Comments

GREENEVILLE - A Kingsport postal worker will spend two days in prison for stealing DVDs sent through the mail and selling them on eBay.

Jeffrey Dean Davis appeared in U.S. District Court in Greeneville on Monday and received a 48-hour prison sentence. Judge Ronnie Greer also sentenced Davis to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $685 in restitution to the six victims and perform 150 hours of community service.

Davis pleaded guilty in January to one count of mail theft.

A presentence report found Davis could have been sentenced from zero to six months in prison and stated Davis does not have the ability to pay a fine in the range of $500 to $5,000. Due to this information, Greer waived the fine against Davis.

According to court documents, Davis worked at the U.S. Postal Service from November 1997 to December 2005, employed as a clerk at the Kingsport Main Post Office.

Prosecutors say that on Oct. 25, 2005, a postal supervisor looked into the back side of a post office box being rented by Davis and saw five sheets of postage stamps valued at $385. A few minutes after Davis left the office, the supervisor noticed the stamps were gone from the post office box.

Court documents state the U.S. Postal Inspection Service began to investigate this incident and reports from co-workers who had seen Davis placing mail in his lunch bag.

On two occasions in December 2005, inspectors videotaped Davis placing mail in his lunch bag just before he left the office. On the second incident, inspectors confronted Davis and found six unopened mail items, including two DVDs and a child's Christmas gift from his great-grandmother, court records state.

After being read his rights, Davis told inspectors that over a four- to five-month period he had been stealing four to five mail items per week. Davis also admitted to stealing the $385 in stamps.

Court records state inspectors then searched Davis' residence, where they found four mailing receipts for parcels sent to eBay customers - DVDs he had stolen from the mail.

Inspectors also found nine other DVDs, two periodicals and an autographed photograph of actor Leslie Nielsen - all of which were stolen from the mail. Court records state inspectors found 10 empty envelopes or parcel labels addressed to people other than Davis.

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