Postmaster who stole from the mail to support her drug addiction avoids federal prison sentence

A former postmaster who admitted stealing from the mail to feed her drug addiction won’t be going to prison for the crime.

Instead, U.S. Middle District Judge Jennifer P. Wilson has ordered Amanda Smoot to serve 2 years on federal prison.

Smoot also has lost her $78,000-a-year job as the postmaster for Stewartstown along with her nearly 20-year career with the U.S. Postal Service.

“Mrs. Smoot’s situation serves yet as another tragic example of how drug addiction impacts lives,” Assistant Federal Public Defender Ari Weitzman wrote in seeking leniency for his client.

A probation sentence wasn’t opposed by prosecutors.

In a sentencing memorandum, Weitzman said Smoot was not only stealing from the mail but was also ordering opioids illegally via the “dark web.”

“Her addiction was so bad that she could have overdosed and died on many occasions. That is how risky her behavior was,” he wrote.

Weitzman cited Smoot’s rehabilitation efforts, including what he described as her avid participation in Narcotics Anonymous, as reasons she shouldn’t be sent to prison.

“Her transformation should be recognized and celebrated,” he wrote, because Smoot has overcome her addiction “in an extraordinary fashion.”

“While her fight is far from over, our criminal justice system should recognize that this tough-as-nails individual is flourishing,” Weitzman urged.

Although he did not urge that she be sent to prison, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christian Haugsby wrote that Smoot “broke the trust of her fellow citizens and those who vouchsafed their mail to the care and custody of the U.S. Postal system. She breached the trust of the businesses in her community that were victims of her deceptive conduct.”

Haugsby said Smoot kept stealing drugs from the mail even after her initial attempts at rehabilitation.

In addition to the probation term, Wilson ordered Smoot to pay $20,819 in restitution.

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