Former Illinois Postmaster Pleads Guilty

Catherine A. Gajewski, a former postmaster in Jefferson County, IL, has withdrawn her innocent plea and pleaded guilty to a charge of misappropriation of funds by a postal employee.^[1]

She changed her plea last Tuesday in the U.S. Southern Court in Benton. According to court documents, it's alleged that between September 2005 and January 2007, Gajewski, as a U.S. Postal Service employee, “did convert to her own use, without authorization by law, more than $1,000 under her control in the execution of her employment as the postmaster of Scheller.”^[2] She was indicted in March.^[3]

“I did not know there was an investigation going on, and I have done nothing wrong….I know nothing about this.” Gajewski said; the investigation was conducted by the U.S. Postal Service Office of the Inspector General.^[4]

According to federal sentencing guidelines, Gajewski could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison, plus a fine; however, the actual sentence imposed is based upon the seriousness of the offense and the prior criminal history, if any, of the defendant.^[5]According to court records, Gajewski was not offered a plea agreement.^[6]

18 U.S.C. § 1711 covers misappropriation of postal funds, in that section it states that whoever, being a Postal Service officer or employee, loans, uses, pledges, hypothecates, or converts to his own use, or deposits in any bank, or exchanges for other funds or property, except as authorized by law, any money or property coming into his hands or under his control in any manner, in the execution or under color of his office, employment, or service, whether or not the same shall be the money or property of the United States; or fails or refuses to remit to or deposit in the Treasury of the United States or in a designated depository, or to account for or turn over to the proper officer or agent, any such money or property, when required to do so by law or the regulations of the Postal Service, or upon demand or order of the Postal Service, either directly or through a duly authorized officer or agent, is guilty of embezzlement; and every such person, as well as every other person advising or knowingly participating therein, shall be fined under this title or in a sum equal to the amount or value of the money or property embezzled, whichever is greater, or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; but if the amount or value thereof does not exceed $1,000, he shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.^[7]

This section shall not prohibit any Postal Service officer or employee from depositing, under the direction of the Postal Service, in a national bank designated by the Secretary of the Treasury for that purpose, to his own credit as Postal Service officer or employee, any funds in his charge, nor prevent his negotiating drafts or other evidences of debt through such bank, or through United States disbursing officers, or otherwise, when instructed or required so to do by the Postal Service, for the purpose of remitting surplus funds from one post office to another.

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^[1] Mary Kaye Davis, Former Scheller postmaster pleads guilty in federal court, Benton Evening News, August 8, 2007, available at http://www.bentoneveningnews.com/articles/2007/08/08/news/04.txt (last visited August 8, 2007).
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] 18 U.S.C. § 1711 (2007).