5th Cir. Pattern Jury Instr. (Criminal) 2.71

EMPLOYEE

18 U.S.C. § 1709

Title 18, United States Code, Section 1709, makes it a crime for a Postal Service employee

to embezzle any mail matter possessed by the employee during employment.

For you to find the defendant guilty of this crime, you must be convinced that the

government has proved each of the following beyond a reasonable doubt:

First: That the defendant was a Postal Service employee at the time stated in the indictment;

Second: That, as a Postal Service employee, the defendant had been entrusted with [had

lawfully come into possession of] the mail matter described in the indictment, which mail matter

was intended to be conveyed by mail; and

Third: That the defendant embezzled mail matter.

A letter is “intended to be conveyed by mail” if a reasonable person who saw the letter

would think it was a letter intended to be delivered through the mail.

The fact that a particular letter may have been a “decoy” letter which was not meant to go

anywhere would not prevent your finding that it was intended to be conveyed by mail if a

reasonable person who saw the letter would think it was a normal letter which was intended to be

delivered.

To “embezzle” means to wrongfully and intentionally take money or property of another

after the money or property has lawfully come into the possession or control of the person taking

it.