Jury Duty Scam May Put Postal Worker in Prison

Trials & Litigation

Jury Duty Scam May Put Postal Worker in Prison

Posted Feb 14, 2008, 12:01 pm CDT
By Martha Neil

When a postal worker in Washington, D.C., had to serve on a jury in an extended federal trial, the government paid him his usual salary. But there were days that the jury was excused, and Joseph Winstead never reported to his job as a mail processor, yet was still paid. Apparently emboldened by this experience, he reportedly told his supervisor for months that he was still serving on the jury when, in fact, he had been excused before deliberations began.

All told, Winstead played hooky from work for 144 days, fabricating paperwork to support his reimbursement claims. His jury duty scam might never have come to light if he hadn't tried it again when he was called for jury duty a second time, prompting a suspicious supervisor to investigate, reports the Washington Post. Indicted in December, the 52-year-old Winstead pleaded guilty yesterday in a fraud case in the same federal courthouse in which he purportedly had spent so much time in jury service.

For scamming nearly $40,000 in unearned wages from the government in two separate jury duty incidents between 2003 and 2006, he is likely to be given a prison sentence of 8 to 14 months, according to the newspaper. He is also required, under a plea agreement, to reimburse the government.

"We're glad the fraud was detected," says Gerald McKiernan, a U.S. Postal Service spokesman. "The system worked."

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