Versailles postal employee charged with theft
Wanda English Burnett - Editor

Darla G. Copeland, 37, of Versailles, pled not guilty to theft charges in the United States District Court New Albany Division, last Wednesday, March 24, at an initial hearing at 2:30 p.m.

According to Elden Hartman, United States Postal Inspector, Indianapolis, Copeland was indicted by a grand jury on February 24.

The indictment reads in part, "On various occasions between April 2003 and on or about the 23rd day of October 2003, in Ripley County, in the Southern District of Indiana, Darla G. Copeland, defendant herein, being a Postal Service employee, did knowingly steal, abstract, and remove United States currency from mail entrusted to her and in her possession intended to be conveyed by mail..."

Copeland was employed as a postal carrier with the Versailles Post Office during the time the alleged thefts occurred.

A trial date has been set in US District Court, New Albany, for April 19, for Copeland. If found guilty, the maximum prison term is five years incarceration and the maximum fine is $250,000.