
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, October 27, 1995                   TAG: 9510270063
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN THE EYES OF FEDERAL LAW, SPITTING THE SAME AS HITTING

A dispute over mail delivery that escalated into a "wrestling match" on the pavement with a postal carrier resulted in a felony conviction for a Roanoke man.

Shannon Short, 20, pleaded guilty Thursday to assaulting, intimidating and interfering with a postal carrier in performance of his official duties, a federal felony.

Short had been charged with a more serious offense, but agreed to a plea bargain rather than go to trial in U.S. District Court. He's scheduled to be sentenced in January.

The charge stemmed from an incident in August, when Short asked Donald Tuck, the mail carrier at his condominium complex, to hand him his mail because he was waiting for a paycheck and didn't have his mailbox key. Tuck told Short he was required to place all mail in the mailboxes and could not hand letters to residents.

According to a postal inspector who investigated, Short and three friends then followed Tuck on his rounds as he hand-delivered certified letters door-to-door, swearing at him. Short said Tuck called him "foul names, and I just took offense to that." As Tuck went back to his vehicle, Short spit on the carrier twice and threw a lighted cigarette at him.

At that, Tuck went after Short.

Tuck, who is much taller than the slight Short, "beat the tar out of him," said Short's attorney, Randy Cargill. "He grabbed him, beat him, wrestled him to the ground. [The matter] should have stopped there."

Cargill said he was ready to go to trial, but came upon a ruling in a similar case that spitting did indeed constitute an assault on a mail carrier, who he said enjoys "special protection" under the law. With that precedent in existence, they decided to plea bargain.

"It's a federal offense to spit on a mailman," Cargill said incredulously, but added, "in the end, [Short] shouldn't have spit on him or thrown a cigarette at him."

by CNB