Former postal worker Stephanie Lacroix, who stole thousands of dollars in credit cards and gift cards from people along her Harvard mail delivery route in 2018, was sentenced to three years’ probation in U.S. District Court in Worcester last week.
After people along Lacroix’s route reported missing mail last year, the Harvard police and the U.S. Postal Service launched a joint investigation. Using a hidden surveillance camera in her truck, officers caught Lacroix stealing mail in August 2018, and she was fired from her job. She was arrested at the conclusion of the investigation in November and pleaded guilty to mail theft in federal court in March of this year, admitting that she stole to support her drug addiction..
Lacroix tearfully expressed remorse at her trial and also at her sentencing hearing Aug. 28. She has been undergoing treatment for drug abuse since her arrest. She has two daughters, ages 19 and 12, and a 5-month-old son, according to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette’s report on her sentencing..
Lacroix faced a maximum of five years in prison, but Assistant U.S. Attorney John T. Mulcahy, who prosecuted the case, asked for a sentence of 10 months, the shortest time in the sentencing guidelines for her offense..
Lacroix’s court-appointed lawyer, Joshua R. Hanye, argued she had struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction for years. He said her 19-year-old daughter would be left to care for the baby if Lacroix went to prison. Moreover, the baby was born dependent on Suboxone, which Lacroix takes as part of her treatment, and he would go through withdrawal if she were no longer to breastfeed him..
Judge Timothy S. Hillman said he had wrestled with the decision on her sentencing and told her she would be “on a short leash” during her three years of probation, as reported in the Telegram & Gazette. He also ordered Lacroix to pay $37,000 in restitution for the thefts..
The two Leominster residents to whom Lacroix gave the credit and gift cards in exchange for drugs, Shane and Lindsey Achilla, faced charges in Leominster District Court and share responsibility for the restitution. But it is unclear how that money is to be collected or apportioned among those who suffered losses, the T&G wrote..
Detective Daniele Fortunato of the Harvard Police Department told the Press that Harvard officers had worked countless hours and taken dozens of reports from residents whose mail was stolen by Lacroix, presenting all the information to Special Agent Brian T. Martineau, the federal investigator..
Fortunato said she understood why sentencing Lacroix to probation might not satisfy some of the Harvard residents whose mail was stolen. “Victims feel re-victimized when no one gets jail time, and I empathize with them,” she said. “It’s such an invasion of their personal information, and they feel violated and want someone to be held accountable.”
