3 women charged in Windward mail thefts

By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer

Federal agents have charged three women for allegedly stealing checks from Windward O'ahu mailboxes and cashing them at local banks, U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo said yesterday.

Kimberly Huffman, 28, Maxine Lynn Rogers, 31, and Stephanie M. Sechrist, 32, were arrested Thursday on charges of conspiracy, bank fraud, and possession of stolen mail. They made their initial appearance in federal court that day and were held without bail pending detention hearings.

A fourth suspect, Pamie Compehos, 40, is not yet in custody, and a fifth woman, Janda Mendez, 40, is in state custody on other charges. A sixth man was charged, but a dismissal of those charges is being considered due to a prior prosecution of that man in state court.

The arrests followed a warning this week from the U.S. Postal Inspector Service advising Hawai'i residents that it is no longer safe to place outgoing mail for carrier pickup in home mailboxes because of an increase in thefts.

Despite the arrests, Kathryn M. Derwey, postal inspector for Hawai'i, said the community shouldn't let its guard down because there are still active mail theft rings. She advised people to drop their outgoing mail in postal service collection boxes.

"This is just one small group," Derwey said. "There are others out there. Wherever there's mail in mailboxes, they're hitting."

According to the indictment, the group drove through residential neighborhoods on O'ahu, including neighborhoods in Kailua and Kane'ohe. They looked for boxes which had the attached red outgoing mail flag raised and stole the outgoing mail from the boxes. They referred to this process as "red flagging."

The indictment said the women opened the mail and took any checks they found inside. The indictment said the mail theft ring operated from August to October 1999.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Recktenwald said six victims were identified in the indictment. He did not disclose if there were more victims, how much money the group managed to steal in the scheme or how the group was caught.

Recktenwald said the group washed stolen checks in a solution that lifted the handwritten ink off them. The thieves wrote new payees and amounts, and cashed some of the altered and forged checks at local banks.

Huffman, Rogers and Sechrist were named in an indictment that was returned June 20 but sealed pending their arrests. If convicted, each of the defendants face possible jail terms totaling up to 40 years, and fines totaling up to $1.5 million.

The case was jointly investigated by the U.S. States Postal Inspection Service and the Honolulu Police Department.