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McDavid Postmaster Enters Diversion Program In Sexual Battery Case
September 22, 2011
The McDavid postmaster arrested in April on attempted sexual battery and false imprisonment charges has entered a pretrial diversion program.
James Bruce Lee, 51, was arrested March 2 on two outstanding state warrants served by the United States Postal Inspection Service with the assistance of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
Until the pretrial intervention program, Lee was rescheduled to appear in court September 14, 2012. If he successfully completes the program, the charges against him will be dismissed at that time.
According to Postal Inspector Michael Mulder, the charges stemmed from a January 15 incident that allegedly took place inside the McDavid Post Office. A female mail carrier alleged that Lee attempted to sexually assault her inside the Main Street building.
According to the arrest warrant, the woman alleged Lee approached her from behind while she was sorting mail and began touching her all over her body. She told him to stop, at which time he complied. Later in the day, after the other carriers had left the building, Lee once again approached the carrier holding her by her hands while pulling his pants down, the carrier told investigators, before stopping when he heard a vehicle in the post office parking lot.
Lee provided a sworn written statement and interview to postal investigators; however, his statements were not released by the United States Postal Inspection Service.
Lee, who served as McDavid postmaster since January 2005, was placed on administrative leave at the time of his arrest. As of Wednesday, Lee “remains in a non-pay status pending a determination of the disposition of the criminal charges filed against him,” according to Stephen A. Seewoester, spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Service.
Comments
17 Responses to “McDavid Postmaster Enters Diversion Program In Sexual Battery Case”
In cases where it’s his word against her word, not sure anyone of us would like to be on the receiving end of a disgruntled employee or put in any situation where this is all the evidence. Because none of us know anything about the true story except these two, we really can’t judge him or her. As far as smoke than there is fire, sometimes you are put in a lose lose situation. This may have been his best option.
We have an MDO that tried to get hot with a Mail Handler (age 21) in San Francisco inwhich a Mediation Judge found him guilty of sex advances and is still employed till this day. What happened to “ZERO TOLERANCE?”
don’t see how he will lose his retirement a supervisor in san diego was convicted of stealing thousand of dollars and was prosecuted in federal court and kept his retirement and all the money they could not find.
As a former Postal insider, I suspect he selected a diversion to keep his retirement with the PO. Had he been convicted of a felony vs. a misdemeanor his families financial security would have been at risk. Follow the Money.
True enough, RB. Of course, from this report, all we know about the person making the allegation is that she is “female”, not whether she is young or old. No doubt, whichever party has been wronged here has been *desperately* wronged.
The saddest thing in the world is when something “did” happen to an adolescent by someone who “appears” to be an upstanding person & that supposedly upstanding person can go on and lead a “good” life, be left huge amounts of money, never get caught at “any” of the other illegal things the person did….meanwhile……the victim and person’s left to deal with the results of the things that happened to the victim continue to suffer……..
Just a comment…in no way directed to either party regarding this post office situation. May the truth come out either way…If he is innocent, this is a terrible thing to happen to him…
justathought said…”i always KNEW a certain man didn’t do a certain thing with a young girl…i was 100% positive and the evidence showed otherwise. He DID do what I knew he hadn’t done and he ended up in prison for it. I was shocked as was my community. He was an educated, upstanding man whom was respected by many…..we thought we knw him and his character…”
I said…I personally would not call it either way. If there was only one thing I believed from the Bible it would be that no one is righteous except God.
But I do think it’s a bit early to be buying rope to hang this man ,don’t you?
just because you know (or think you know) somone, doesn’t mean you do. i always KNEW a certain man didn’t do a certain thing with a young girl…i was 100% positive and the evidence showed otherwise. He DID do what I knew he hadn’t done and he ended up in prison for it. I was shocked as was my community. He was an educated, upstanding man whom was respected by many…..we thought we knw him and his character…we thought the young girl was trying to hurt him for some reason and she was getting slammed for it….then the REAL truth came out when the DNA was brought out
If you get a traffic ticket, it’s sometimes best to take the safety course and avoid the points on your license. You may think you are not guilty or you may *be* not guilty but one never knows what might happen when you step in the courtroom.
Like most charges in our legal system, if you fight and lose, it’s gonna cost you a lot more than if you just hit your hip to begin with.
I can tell you exactly why he entered the plea the way he did! It was going to cost him approx $3000.00 a day for court cost, attorney’s fees and ever other kind of fee possibile. It could cost him up to $30,000.00 or more and still prove absolutely nothing!!! (He said she said) If the man is not going to have a job, all the humiliation, and still prove nothing. BEING INNOCENT is not cheap!!! You are guility until proven innocent. How many times have people been accused of things they didn’t do, that kind of blows that where there is smoke there is fire theory out the window.
Very strange, a “He Said, She Said” situation without any apparent witnesses or physical evidence would seem very hard to prove guilt, but then he enters pre-trial intervention???
This could have been either way. No one really knows the evil that lurks in
anyone’s mind, they do not run up and tell you about their evil thoughts.
They do like everyone else and put on a proper face when at all possible.
It is a shame that one is actually the criminal and one is actually the victim,
but we will probably never know the truth of which is which, unless someone
doesn’t behave themselves further, so in this case both people end up being
the victim.
People are so quick to judge.. “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Matthew 7:1-5 NKJV~
So what if he agreed to do the program, I believe James is innocent.. No, I was not there when he was accused of this, but God was.. I am praying for you James.. God is with you and is in control working behind the scene.
Oftentimes it is cheaper and easier to go into a program as part of a pretrial plead deal than to defend the charges against you. With him not receiving pay per the article that makes a lot of sense. I wonder if he will receive all of his back pay if the charges are dropped?
Methinks that there is more here than meets the eye; now the complainant has the upper hand over her “boss”, I just wonder if that was the purpose from the start.
Odd that he would enter the “program” . I wonder if his statement will ever be released. An odd case from the start to the end. Wii he “retire” or keep his job after he does the “program”
Don’t know if he is guilty or not, but where there is smoke, there’s fire. There must be a reason he agreed to this, so there seems to be a good chance that he did something he shouldn’t have. Maybe a bad joke or and accidental bump? Anyway, maybe this will solve someone’s problems!
Miss ya Bruce, you do an outstanding job A plus in my book I believe you’re innocent,hurry back!!!