A former United States Postal Service employee has been sentenced in federal court to five years' probation and ordered to repay nearly $22,000 that she admitted stealing while working as the postal employee in two tiny post offices in southeast Arkansas.
Shannon Nicole Wilson was sentenced Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Susan O. Hickey in federal court in El Dorado after she pleaded guilty in May to a charge of misappropriation of funds.
Wilson's plea agreement with the government said she took the funds between Sept. 6, 2016, and Jan. 11, 2017, the date she was fired.
The plea agreement said Wilson was the postal clerk at the post offices in Parkdale, population 277, and Wilmot, population 550, 4 miles apart in Ashley County.
Wilson was required to submit daily financial reports of sales -- mostly money orders, stamps and other supplies -- to customers, according to the plea agreement. The district manager became suspicious about the reports Wilson submitted and actual money orders sold.
The reports contained numerous discrepancies, the plea agreement said. Some money orders were reported as void but then were found to have been cashed. Others were reported as sold but were cashed for larger amounts. Other cashed money orders were not reported.
The government said Wilson used the money order funds for her own use.
State Desk on 09/30/2018