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Shawna Barrett and John Osburn

(MCSO)

A 33-year-old Portland woman who authorities say helped her boyfriend steal more than 30,000 pieces of mail that he didn't deliver as part of his U.S. Postal Service job was sentenced Monday to 180 days in jail and inpatient drug treatment.

Shawna Marie Deweese Barrett pleaded guilty during a December hearing for her role in the monthslong scheme that authorities say netted her and boyfriend John Paul Osburn credit cards, mail-order medications, gift cards and stolen cash from greeting cards intended for children.

Investigators say the pair also cast aside lots of other mail that would have been important to recipients: medical test results, DMV registrations, credit-card bills and financial statements. Investigators found that Barrett and Osburn had intercepted at least one payment to Multnomah County Circuit Court for a parking ticket and the undelivered check possibly led the court to impose a late-fee penalties.

Authorities say Barrett rented a storage locker that was piled 5 feet high with heaps of mail stolen by Osburn. Osburn was hired in June 2013 by the Postal Service and worked at the Lents Post Office and later the Rose City Park Post Office, where he delivered mail part time by filling in for carriers who were on vacation or sick.

Investigators combed through bags upon bags of stolen mail in this storage locker.

Osburn, 33, is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison.

Barrett -- a mother of four children ranging in age from 2 to 17 -- stood up during her sentencing hearing before Multnomah County Circuit Judge Stephen Bushong and said she has been trying to make amends by going to church, self-help groups, parenting classes and Portland Community College classes.

"I take full responsibility for my very poor choices," Barrett said, reading from a piece of lined notebook paper. "I do know right from wrong."

Prosecutor Kevin Demer told The Oregonian/OregonLive after the hearing that the theft operation wouldn't have gone on as long if more residents had reported their mail stolen to the Postal Service when they realized it was missing.

"They don't know to investigate until there's enough complaints," Demer said. "Very few people reported it."

Demer said stealing mail isn't like other crimes that the police notice without victims coming forward. He pointed to the example of a smashed in car window.

Police only found out about this scheme because a man who bought the contents of an unpaid storage locker at auction called police last September, saying that he opened it up to discover bags upon bags of undelivered mail. The mail was postmarked from October 2013 to April 2014.

Investigators say that within about four months of Osburn's hire by the Postal Service, he was ferreting away bags of mail in the 5-by-10-foot storage locker from wide swaths of the city: ZIP codes 97213, 97266, 97212, 97205, 97215, 97211 and 97233.

That led investigators to Barrett's home, at Southeast 143rd Avenue and Brooklyn Street, where they found more stolen mail.

Barrett and Osburn were arrested in late September during a traffic stop. They had their then-1-year-old child in the car with them -- as well as a loaded semi-automatic rifle and mail that Osburn admitted stealing from his most recent shift.

Osburn told police that he and Barrett used methamphetamine daily and that he didn't feel bad about stealing mail because he needed money to feed himself and his child, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Barrett's attorney said Barrett's struggles with drugs began after she herniated three discs and began using painkillers.

Barrett pleaded guilty in Multnomah County Circuit Court to identity theft, being a felon in possession of a firearm and six counts of mail theft of receipt of stolen mail. Osburn pleaded guilty in January to six counts of mail theft or receipt of stolen mail.

Neither Barrett or Osburn were charged with any federal crimes.

Barrett and Osburn will be required to repay the costs of investigating their crimes and delivering the mail they stole. So far, that amount is more than $50,000.

Demer, the prosecutor, said the Postal Service painstakingly combed through every piece of mail and delivered what it could to the intended recipients -- along with a note explaining the delay was because of mail theft.

In some cases, the address of the intended recipient couldn't be determined. That was often the case in piles of checks that Barrett and Osburn had removed from their envelopes but hadn't cashed. In those cases, the checks were returned to the sender, Demer said.

As part of Barrett's plea agreement, she will be allowed to finish her current term, which ends in March, at Portland Community College. She then will be required to start serving her jail term.

After 90 days, she will be eligible to leave if an inpatient drug-treatment bed opens up before her 180-day sentence is over. She also was sentenced to three years of probation.

-- Aimee Green

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