Postal worker avoids prison in theft case

WORCESTER – A fired letter carrier from Fitchburg who smoked crack in her postal truck and stole thousands from customers on her Harvard mail route avoided a jail sentence Wednesday in federal court.

Stephanie Lacroix, 38, was sentenced to 3 years of supervised release and ordered to pay about $37,000 in restitution after her lawyer argued that addiction, not greed, fueled her crimes.

“I just want to say sorry for everything that I’ve done,” Ms. Lacroix, who has maintained sobriety and is nursing a 5-month-old son, told the court.

Ms. Lacroix in March admitted to stealing cash, gifts and credit cards intended for more than 30 customers, including one who came to court Wednesday.

“She didn’t get a single birthday card on her ninth birthday,” Jessica Shlasko recalled of a young neighbor whose cards never reached their destination.

An agent with the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General pulled Ms. Lacroix over in her postal truck in August 2018 after seeing her smoke from a glass pipe.

Two secret cameras had caught evidence of her stealing and smoking the pipe; she'd noticed the first camera, an agent wrote, but kept stealing.

Ms. Lacroix’s court-appointed lawyer, Joshua Hanye, argued Wednesday that his client’s crimes were rooted in lifelong addiction problems preceded by a difficult childhood.

Domestic violence separated her parents at a young age, he said, and Ms. Lacroix began drinking heavily at 14.

In the midst of raising two daughters, now ages 19 and 12 — mostly while working at a doughnut shop — Ms. Lacroix struggled with substance abuse, using heroin after an addiction to Percocet she developed in her 20s became too costly to support, her lawyer said.

At the time of the thefts, Ms. Lacroix was working to support her family – her husband struggled with alcoholism – and to support a habit of $40 in crack and 5 grams of heroin a day, he said.

Mr. Hanye said two of Ms. Lacroix's “so-called friends” began accepting gift and credit cards she stole in exchange for drugs.

He alleged the “friends,” identified in court records as Shane and Lindsey Achilla of Leominster, rang up most of the fraudulent credit card charges.

Leominster police confirmed Wednesday that the Achillas, both 36, were charged with numerous counts of credit card fraud as a result of the thefts.

Mr. Hanye said in court Wednesday that the male defendant in the case received 9 months in the House of Correction concurrent with another sentence, while the female had her case continued without a finding.

The married couple is listed in police records as living at 3 Elmwood Ave., Leominster. In 2004, both were charged with motor vehicle homicide, authorities indicated in court papers; the charges were continued without a finding.

Ms. Lacroix admitted in November that she gave the couple 50 to 80 cards and received drugs in return.

When she was initially questioned after being stopped in her mail truck, she'd denied stealing or smoking and then asked for her Michael Kors purse back.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John T. Mulcahy asked Judge Timothy S. Hillman for a 10-month prison sentence, noting the importance of deterring similar thefts from mail carriers.

Mr. Hanye argued that losing a great job, being publicly shamed and carrying a felony record was punishment enough.

He said Ms. Lacroix’s 19-year-old daughter would have to care for the 5-month-old if she were incarcerated. He added that the child was born with dependence on Suboxone, a drug commonly used in recovery, and would experience a period of withdrawal if he is separated from his mother, who is breastfeeding him.

After sparing Ms. Lacroix jail time, Judge Hillman said the decision was one he had been wrestling with.

“The fact of the matter is, you, frankly, have the keys to the jail in your hands,” Judge Hillman said, adding that she would be on a “short leash” when it comes to staying clean.

Ms. Shlasko, whose 87-year-old father had sent her a $200 gift card that was stolen from the mail, said she felt bad for Ms. Lacroix, but also wanted the court to know her crimes had real impact.

She told the T&G that many people in her neighborhood still have trouble trusting the Postal Service. So many people were having mail stolen, she said, that before Ms. Lacroix was caught, a mail carrier with whom Ms. Shlasko is friends sent her a letter and wrote on the outside: “No cash inside, do not steal.”

Ms. Shlasko said she doesn’t hold out hope of retrieving the $200. Judge Hillman ordered Ms. Lacroix jointly liable along with her co-defendants for the $37,000 in restitution; it was not immediately clear what the others were ordered to pay in Leominster District Court or how any future payments to neighbors might be apportioned.

Ms. Lacroix’s family members wrote in letters to the court that she is a good person who is ashamed of her conduct.

“(She) has been publicly humiliated and has had people who don’t even know her say horrible things about her on social media,” wrote her mother, Julie Clements. “People saying she doesn’t deserve to live.

“They don’t understand the addiction and the hold it takes over a person,” she continued, adding that Ms. Lacroix is loved by and will be supported by her family.