When Millard Taylor noticed that three of his workers' compensation checks hadn't arrived in the mail on schedule, he decided to investigate.
After some digging, Taylor discovered that the three checks, along with a Social Security check, had been cashed - even though they never reached the mailbox of his Cooksville home, according to county prosecutors.
Taylor was one of three people victimized by a former mail carrier who stole checks from customers on her route and deposited them into her personal bank account, prosecutors say.
Deidre Grace, 47, of the 8300 block of Timberlake Court in Severn, was sentenced to 18 months in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to stealing almost $15,000 in Social Security and workers compensation checks from three Cooksville residents last year.
"The theft negatively impacted all victims, and [the] defendant abused the trust placed in her by the government and necessarily by the citizens to safeguard their mail and ultimately, their money," Assistant State's Attorney Lynn Marshall said.
Grace pleaded guilty to one count of theft scheme of $500 or more. Although state sentencing guidelines suggest a sentence ranging from probation to six months in prison, Howard County Circuit Judge Diane Leasure handed down a sentence of five years with all but 18 months suspended.
In making her ruling, Leasure called the crime "egregious," particularly because of the ages and financial situations of the victims, all senior citizens.
Prosecutors said Taylor told them that in November he noticed that the endorsements on the back of the cashed checks bore the name "Deidre Grace." At the time, Grace was the mail carrier for the Lisbon Post Office, which delivered residential mail to Cooksville.
About the same time, another postal service customer, Bessie Dorsey, reported that she was missing two Social Security checks and that the Social Security Administration told her the checks had been cashed, prosecutors said.
The checks had been deposited into Grace's Navy Federal Credit Union bank account. After getting Grace's bank records, a third victim, Charles Kim, was discovered, prosecutors said.
The bank records showed that in total, Grace had deposited 11 checks that belonged to postal service customers totaling $14,776. That included six of Taylor's workers' compensation checks, his July 2007 Social Security check, and a check that was sent to him to replace that stolen Social Security check.
