11th Cir. Pattern Jury Instr. (Criminal) O67

18 U.S.C. § 1709

It’s a Federal crime for any Postal Service employee to embezzle any mail.

The Defendant can be found guilty of this crime only if all the following

facts are proved beyond a reasonable doubt:

(1) the Defendant was a Postal Service employee at the time stated in

the indictment;

(2) the Defendant was entrusted with, or came into possession of, the

mail matter described in the indictment, and that matter was

intended to be conveyed by the United States mail; and

(3) the Defendant knowingly embezzled the mail matter.

Mail matter is “intended to be conveyed by mail” if a reasonable person who

saw the item would think it was something intended to be delivered through the

mail.

[It doesn’t matter if the item was a “decoy” that wasn’t actually meant to go

anywhere as long as a reasonable person who saw the item would think it was

something intended to be delivered through the mail.]

To “embezzle” means to wrongfully take someone else’s property after

lawfully taking possession or control of it.