Duluth store clerk sentenced for stealing from Postal Service

A Duluth convenience store clerk who stole nearly $27,000 while working at the U.S. Postal Service substation in the Holiday Center Snyder Super Stop was sentenced Tuesday to three years probation and ordered to pay back the money she took.

Amanda Lynn Brown, 30, of Superior pleaded guilty in May to misappropriation of postal funds. U.S. District Judge David Doty said Brown could also face three months of electronic monitoring if that is the recommendation of the probation office. Doty handed down the sentence in federal court in Minneapolis.

Duluth defense attorney Richard Holmstrom said he successfully argued that Brown was a convenience store clerk and not a postal employee, which kept her from receiving a prison sentence.

“The indictment was amended from the statute that was ‘theft by a postal employee’ to the just general ‘theft of government funds’ statute,” Holmstrom said. “The big thing for us was to convince the court that she was not a postal employee.”

Brown declined the opportunity to address the court before being sentenced. He said Brown took a “vast majority” of the money by withdrawing $100 to $200 at a time at the end of each day and would cover up the theft by writing error receipts.

Brown was indicted by a federal grand jury in April and arraigned on one count of misappropriation of postal funds. The indictment alleged that Brown converted to her personal use $26,946.60.

Snyder store owner Scott Sommer told the News Tribune in April that he reported the shortfall to the postal service 1½ to two years ago. Sommer said he fired Brown in September 2008, after she worked for his store for eight or nine years, primarily in the post office. Sommer declined comment on Brown’s sentence Tuesday.

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